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Holland's Influence on and Literature

Tiemen de Vries

bron Tiemen de Vries, 's Influence on English Language and Literature. C. Grentzebach, Chicago 1916

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© 2006 dbnl / Tiemen de Vries 2

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Preface

IN the following pages an endeavor is made to contribute to the knowledge of English language and literature by telling the part which Holland played in their development during several centuries. This contribution to English language and literature I make with especial delight, since the English language is that of the American people, and consequently the literature, written in that language, is of the greatest educational importance to the United States. In doing this, I have tried to reconcile my allegiance and faithfulness to the ‘stars and stripes’ with my imperishable love for the country of my ancestors. My endeavor has been to portray so much of Dutch national life and activity as has been useful and is still useful for our present American life. The life of every American citizen is rooted in the life of one or the other European nation and there is none living that does not feel some hidden love in the bottom of his heart for that country from which either he himself or his ancestors came. He that would deny it would give a poor compliment to his own character, education and feelings. We are always standing between the future and the past; and the love for our ancestors, for the country of their activities, for the places where they are resting after their labors, is as natural as our love for our children and grandchildren. So the problem of the twofold sympathy must present itself more or less to every American, and the way I have tried to solve it, as I hope to the honor of both my old country and

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 6 our new world, may possibly give a hint to those who apparently were not able to find the right equilibrium in their love as divided between the country of their ancestors and that of their offspring in the future. Those who are too much attached to the old country will never become really faithful to the new, and will themselves remain strangers in this country. Those that boast of their indifference about the land of their ancestors are depriving their own character of one of the noblest and most charming qualities: love and honor for their ancestors. The solution is in finding, honoring and remembering the best of what the old country has produced in civilization, in learning, in art and literature, in heroism and martyrdom, and in offering that as a contribution to the national life of the new world, giving honor to the past and blessing to the future. Not in preferring the old world to the new, but in making the best results of European life useful for the American nation, in combining what is beautiful and useful in both of them, lies the solution that alone can satisfy our noblest feelings in this tender question. That is what, as far as Holland's influence on English and American language and literature is concerned, I have tried to do. It is only an endeavor, and as such I hope that it may find appreciation. Finally, I may not omit here the expression of my cordial thanks to Dr. W. Lichtenstein, librarian of Northwestern University, for the kindness and helpfulness with which he and his staff have assisted me in getting the books which I needed, and for the special freedom which he has given me in the use of the library.

T. DE VRIES.

Evanston, Ill., May, 1916.

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Illustrations

PAGE Portrait of Franciscus Junius by Anton van Dyck Frontispiece Portrait of Desiderius by Albrecht Durer 168 Portrait of Hadrianus Junius 182 Portrait of Jacob Cats by P. Dubordieu 192 Portrait of Jonkheer Jan van der Noot 236 page of the ‘Bee-hive’ with portrait of Marnix of St. 250 Aldegonde Portrait of Jan Huyghen van Linschoten 254 Portrait of Jacobus Arminius 264 Portrait of Dirk Volkertz Coornhert by H. Golzius 270 Portrait of Joost van den Vondel by Joachim Sandrard 292 Portrait of by M. Mierevelt 296 Portrait of Willem Bilderdÿk by Hodges 360

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Introduction

AT first sight the treated in this little book must look strange to most American readers, who are educated in the innocent belief that dikes and windmills, some pictures of Rembrandt and some poor fisher people of Marken and Volendam are all that is worth knowing about Holland. And if, during their college years, they follow the advice of some professor and read some book of Motley, then, of course, they feel themselves thoroughly well-posted on Holland; the only thing to be done then is to make a trip to Europe, taking four days for Holland, one to see , one for , one for the isle of Marken, and one for and Leyden. The purchase of a pair of wooden shoes and some postal cards sets the crown on their investigations, and after their return to America these ‘experts on Holland’ feel inclined to give ‘a lecture with lantern slides,’ or to write a ‘nice book’ on ‘picturesque Holland.’ Such has been for the last half century the method of English landlords and of parvenus; why should not Americans follow in their footsteps, since Washington Irving taught them never to think of Holland and of the but with a smile? Why not? Let me give the answer: Because on the pages of American history are written the names of Motley and Douglas Campbell, of Ruth Putnam and of Griffis; because the wonderful chorus of their different voices has made us listen to another song about Holland, sublime like the ideals which the

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Pilgrim fathers brought with them from Leyden, pure and simple like the life of the first settlers on Manhattan, sacred and full of charm like the of William Penn's mother when educating her son in the city on the Meuse. The world's history - and Holland played some part in it when its statesmen, as in the case of William the Silent and William the Third, held in their hands the balance of power of Europe, and the fate of , and in deadly struggle a faithful nation stood by them to conquer freedom of conscience for all generations to come - the world's history contains a great many jokes, just as a picture of Rembrandt contains a great deal of vain darkness, and just as God's world-plan in Milton's Paradise Lost contains a good many devils, but the world's history is not a joke. Is there anything more sublime, more grand for the contemplation of the human soul, than the proceedings of the world's history; that panorama of the leading nations in which generation after generation roll to their graves, leaving their deeds to the admiration of the grateful, and to the mockery of the ungrateful; that tremendous progress of the human race in grandeur inferior only to the Almighty Hand of the Unseen One, whose providential leadership is worshipped by all Creation, whose praise is sung by every creature? In that greatest of all proceedings, outside of which disappears even the very idea of time, every one of the leading nations has its own period to play its part, and to make its history grand for a while, and nobody can change the fact that the great period of Holland precedes that of , and nothing is more natural than that the political and commercial history of Holland, its industry, its art and literature, its whole standard, of civilization was destined to be a great

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 15 school of learning for its successor on the British Isles. And however scornfully a successor in power and leadership may look down upon the defeated and declining predecessor, there has been exerted an influence far reaching and covering nearly every part of life, in industry, in commerce, in social and domestic life, in literature and in art, and that influence has found its most natural reflection in the literature of the rising nation which is going to succeed its declining rival. To give an outline of this influence of Holland on English literature and language is the endeavor made in the following pages. Only an outline, as there could be made no claim whatever of completeness, since researches on the influence of Holland are, as yet, still in their first period; but an outline that gives at least an idea of the point in view. The endeavor is to contribute to the knowledge and history of English language and literature; an endeavor attractive and interesting because the English language is the language of our American country, and consequently English literature will be of the greatest importance in the education of our own children and grandchildren. This last fact I mention with delight, considering it as one of the greatest blessings which God's Providence has given to the American people, because in literature England unquestionably stands first among; all the nations of the earth. The subject treated in this little volume was suggested to me several times during the two years I was lecturing on Dutch History, Art, and Literature in the University of Chicago. When I talked to one of my colleagues about the question ‘Spencer-Van der Noot’ to another about ‘Vondel-Milton’ and to a third about ‘Elckerlick-Everyman,’ repeatedly the

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 16 suggestion was made that I give an outline of all the topics in English Literature in which the influence of Holland was traceable, and I could, hardly deny that the subject really lay in my way. Besides that, in fact, I gave the students at the beginning of every course an outline of this subject amongst the reasons why an American should study Dutch History, Art and Literature. It may interest students of the present subject to know how far it comes into contact as a special study with the more general field of historical information about Holland: to know the reasons why Americans should be interested in it. I give them here as I found them in my note-book:

1. Because the glorious history of the is a part of the World's history. From the year 1500 till the year 1700 the headquarters of the World's history are to be found in the . See in the English language the works of J. Ellis Barker, J.A. Froude, Macaulay, Griffis, Alexander Young and others. 2. Because the Dutch laid the foundations of four of the great central colonies in America, viz., New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. See the works of Broadhead, O'Calleghan and Griffis. 3. Because Holland exerted a remarkable influence on the first English, French and German settlers in America during the seventeenth century. See Douglas Campbell's work: ‘The Puritans’; and my lecture on the subject in ‘Dutch History, Art and Literature for Americans.’ 4. Because the Dutch Republic in its beautiful history is the only mighty Republic in modern times of which we can study the rise, the glory, the decline, the downfall and the revival as a ; a history full of lessons for the Republic of the United States.

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See especially J. Ellis Barker's ‘The Rise and Decline of the Dutch Republic.’ 5. Because the history of the Netherlands bears such a remarkable resemblance to the history of the United States that a comparison is most interesting. See the works of John Adams, and my lecture on this subject in ‘Dutch History, Art and Literature for Americans.’ 6. Because Holland was the cradle of modern Democracy. The rise of the Flemish cities , , , and later Leyden, , Amsterdam, etc., have been the starting points in the great struggle against mediaeval feudalism and hierarchy, in behalf of all modern Democracy, of which the headquarters now are in the United States. See the works of Guiciardini, Motley, Thorold Rogers, etc. 7. Because the Dutch settlers from the first beginning of the American commonwealth have been, and their descendants are still today, an important element of the American people. They are spread over all the States to the number of several millions, and their character and influence and traditions can be known only by studying Dutch history. See Henry van Dyke, ‘The Spirit of America,’ Douglas Campbell, ‘The Puritans,’ etc. 8. Because hardly any branch of science or knowledge in its history can be well understood without studying the history of Holland. For instance: In divinity, Gomarus, Arminius, Maccovius, Gysbert Voet, Rivet, Maresius; in philosophy, Spinoza; in law, Hugo Grotius, Johannes Voet, Paul Voet, Salmasius; in philology, Erasmus, Junius Lipsius, Vossius, etc.; in botany, Linnaeus; in medicine, Boerhaave, etc., etc. See any book giving the history of one or the other of these branches of learning. 9. Because nobody can study Dutch art without some knowledge of Dutch history and of the character of the Dutch nation. The schools of Rubens and Rembrandt are most closely con-

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nected with prevailing ideas and circumstances in the Netherlands. 10. Because nobody can understand Dutch literature without studying Dutch history. And yet, everybody for instance, knows Vondel's Lucifer, and ought to know the national literature to which it belongs. The Japanese professor Kanura called the Lucifer one of the most splendid products of the human mind. Such a piece of work stands not alone. The highest mountains are not to be found on the prairies, but always in the midst of many other mountains. A nation for centuries prominent in history for learning and civilization must have a literature which no scholar, who has self-respect, can neglect. See L.C. Van Noppen, Vondel's Lucifer, translated into English, and the works, on universal literature, also the works on Dutch literature, by Jonckbloet, Ten Brink, Te Winkel, Kalff and thousands of monographs. 11. Because Dutch politics cannot be understood without a knowledge of Dutch history, and yet the policy of William the Silent and William III (1650-1702) contains beautiful principles for the guidance of a republic, just as the policy of Oldenbarnevelt, John de Witt and the Olichargs, was and is destructive and ruinous to any republic. See on the policy of William the Silent: Harrison, Ruth Putnam, Motley; on that of William III: Macaulay; on that of Oldenbarnevelt, De Witt, and the Olichargs: Ellis Barker. Twice all Protestantism was maintained and saved from being crushed, at first under the leadership of William the Silent against the Roman Catholic world-empire of , and secondly under the leadership of William III against the world-empire of under Louis XIV. These two great Princes of Orange had only one fault, viz., they were not ambitious enough to make a strong central government into a permanent one by changing the constitution. On the contrary, the policy of Barnevelt and De Witt by

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their antagonism against the House of Orange, by their neglect of army and navy, by their weakening and nearly dissolving the union and the central national government, by their appeal to foreign powers to sustain their party-policy, laid the foundations for the decline and downfall of the country, just as happened in so many republics of ancient times. These are indeed great lessons for every republic including the United States. 12. Because the real spirit of America is so much like, and so rooted in, the spirit of the Dutch Republic. See Henry van Dyke, Münsterberg, and Butler. 13. Because Holland was the cradle of the Reformation, which inspired the beginnings of modern Democracy. Equality before God, the priesthood of all believers, and personal responsibility towards God, became the fundamental ideas of modern Democracy, in sharp contrast with the Democracy of the later with its ‘Ni Dieu ni Maître.’ The American Democracy was from the beginning rooted in the ideas, not of the French Revolution, but in those of the Reformation, and remained so in the time of John Adams, notwithstanding the influence of Jefferson and Paine. 14. Because Holland even till our present time has occupied a central position among European nations and is still important for the high standing of its universities and for its colonial power. The Peace Palace is at the Hague. The world's school for international law will be there, where its founder, Hugo Grotius, lived. In gaining Nobel prizes the Dutch nation ranks first. The Dutch colonies cover an area nearly half as large as the United States, with nearly forty millions of inhabitants. If ranked according to the amount of imports from them into the United States, Holland with its colonies is always the third or the fourth nation: England is first, second, and either France or Holland is third or fourth.

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15. Because there has always been a close sympathy between Holland and America. The Pilgrims came from Holland. Most of the first French and German settlers found a refuge in Holland, before they came to America. Four of the colonies were founded by Holland. The victory of the American colonies over France, ending in the conquest of Quebec in 1750, was a consequence of the struggle of Prince William III of Orange against Louis XIV. During the war of Independence John Adams found sympathy and money in Holland, and at least three medals were at that time made in the Netherlands, showing the sympathy of Holland for the of the United States. 16. Because many American institutions of State and church and school, in their historical development, are rooted in Dutch institutions. See Douglass Campbell's ‘The Puritans,’ Ruth Putnam's lecture on ‘The Influence of Holland on America.’ 17. Because Holland has exerted an important influence on the English language and English literature. See W.W. Skeat's Principles of Etymology, Vol. I, and his Dictionary of English Etymology. For the influence of Holland on English literature there are many monographs - for instance, on the influence of Van der Noot on Edmund Spenser, or that of Hugo Grotius and Vondel on Milton, but a general outline of the whole field has not yet been made.

Every scholar in history and literature sees at a glance that each one of these seventeen arguments could, without much trouble, be worked out in a volume. That I have begun with the last point is because it is the most inquired about, and the least known. Finally, a few remarks about the division of the present volume.

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According to the title one might expect that it should be divided in two parts: (1) The influence of Holland on English language, and (2) on English literature. And yet, in order that the whole field of the subject might really be covered by this research, a third part had to be added, or rather, prefixed before the two others. For not only on the English language and English literature, but even on the development of the whole field of comparative philology, by which we know today so much more than in earlier times about all the elements of the English language and about its relation to other languages, Holland had an influence which can hardly be overestimated. This development of comparative philology is therefore so closely connected with our knowledge of the English language and at the same time has been so much under the influence of Holland, that it seems reasonable to treat Holland's influence on the development of comparative philology, first of all even before treating its influence on English language and literature. The task to be performed in the following pages is therefore naturally divided into three parts: I. Holland's influence on the development of comparative philology. II. Holland's influence on the English language. III. Holland 's influence on English literature.

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Part I Holland's Influence on the Development of Comparative Philology

Chapter I The English Language and Comparative Philology

More than any other the English language is a mixture of many languages1. Consequently there is no language for which a knowledge of the development of comparative philology is so important. Everybody who knows what is meant by the term comparative philology must see this immediately. Comparative philology, as the first part of this term indicates, is the study which emphasizes the comparison of different languages, makes a research for their relationship, tries to find out what they have in common and in which points they differ, along which lines and according to which laws these languages changed their words, their grammar, and their syntax; how under the influence of climate, soil, way of living, and other circumstances from dialects they became languages; how in their roots, in their sound system, in their etymology, in their grammar and syntax they can be traced so as to discover their relationship and their

1 ‘Certainly no language was ever composed of such numerous and such diverse elements.’ Walter W. Skeat. Principles of English Etymology, First Series, Second edition, Oxford, 1892, p. 3.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 24 differences, and consequently how every one of them has to be looked at in its historical development. A more beautiful way to get a thorough knowledge of a language than along these lines certainly never could be chosen. For every language this comparative, this genealogical, this historical, this etymological method is exceedingly interesting. But especially for the English language, the study of which brings the philologist into a veritable labyrinth of so many different parts of numerous languages, that a thorough knowledge of the whole mixture in all its constituent elements can hardly be considered possible without those historical, genealogical and etymological studies, which we call comparative philology. England, which was first inhabited by the Celts with their own language, and then conquered by the Romans, who during four centuries employed there their soldier's , was after that time conquered by the , Jutes and Angles who brought their own languages or dialects. Later on England was conquered by the Danes, and finally by the under William the Conqueror. These latter were Northmen who had acquired the language of France. England under the subsequent and abiding influences of all these conquests, and in later time by its own prevailing trade in permanent contact with many nations of Europe, and of the whole world, finally developed a language in which so many different elements had secured a permanent place, that for the full and thorough knowledge of the present English language the study of comparative philology must be of more importance than for any other language in the world, because no other language contains such a variety of different elements.

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Chapter II The Great Results of Comparative Philology

The study of comparative philology is especially important for the English language, because wonderful and surprising results have been obtained in this field. It is by this study that nowadays we know that all the European languages together with some Asiatic languages form one great family, commonly called the Indo-Germanic, Indo-European, or Aryan group, and that all the languages of this whole group may be supposed to have sprung from one original language, which probably first divided itself into three different dialects or branches: 1. The Asiatic, consisting in later times of the Sanskrit (in India), the Zend (in old Persia) and the Armenian (in old Armenia). 2. The Southern European branch, which in the course of history was divided into Greek, Celtic and Latin which last was the parent of Italian, Spanish and French. 3. The Northern European branch, containing the Germanic group and the Slavo-Lettic languages. The Slavo-Lettic is that group of languages which includes in its south-eastern branches the Russian, Bulgarian, Servian, Croatian and Slavonian, and in its western branch the Czechish or Bohemian and Polish, and further the Lettic which includes Lithuanian and Lettish. The Germanic group, later appears in two groups, viz., the eastern with the Scandinavian and the Gothic,

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 26 and the western including High German (the present German), and including English, Dutch and Frisian. Since the study of comparative philology has discovered this genealogical coherency of all the European languages with some of the Asiatic, a most beautiful field for the study of every one of these languages has been opened for research. Every language can be traced in its own particular growth. The lines along which it changed and deviated from the original can be indicated by comparison with other languages of the same family. A new light has shone on the study of the etymology, grammar, and syntax of every language, and even on the entire history of the nations and the civilization of Europe. Since that time every piece of ancient and mediaeval literature, no matter in what language it was written, has become a source for the study of languages and of history in general. That this progress of comparative philology was important especially for the knowledge of the English language with its so many different elements, is evident enough, and beautiful results show this. Everybody who knows, for instance, the works of W.W. Skeat,1 and especially his Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, must admire the researches, by which nearly every word is traced in its history, and by which is determined to which of the different elements of the present English language it originally belonged. And the comparative , constructed since the first great endeavor of Bopp2 give such an insight into the structure of several languages as never could have been gained before.

1 W.W. Skeat, Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth edition. Other works of Skeat are for instance his Principles of English Etymology, 2 vols., and The Science of Etymology. 2 F. Bopp, A Comparative Grammar of the Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, German and Scandinavian Languages. Translated by E.B. Eastwick, Fourth edition. London, 1885.

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Chapter III Holland's Share in the Development of Comparative Philology

That such a movement as the development of comparative philology did not reach its present importance in one moment, or even in a few years, everybody can easily understand. Extremely difficult for every movement of this kind is its beginning, when it has to go along quite new lines. As long as it remains groping in the dark, as long as nobody knows in which direction to go, there is no advance and no progress. But as soon as a presumption arises that a solution is to be found in a certain direction, then the most wonderful success in advancing to the solution becomes a mere affair of labor and time. Now the great event in the starting of a more serious study of languages by comparative philology no doubt was the discovery and the study of what was left of the , that ‘guiding star of the ’ as Bopp1 calls it. For of all the Germanic languages, including English and Dutch, the Gothic is according to Bopp ‘the mother tongue in her oldest and most form,’ that language ‘so perfect in its grammar.’2 I should rather call it, however, the oldest sister than the mother. What the Gothic is for the Germanic languages, that the old Asiatic language of India, the Sanskrit is for all the Indo-Germanic languages together, viz., the oldest and best preserved of all, ‘the groundwork and connecting bond of the

1 F. Bopp, Comparative Grammar, Preface, p. XV. 2 Ibidem, p. VII.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 28 comparison.’1 ‘The close relationship between the Classical (Greek and Latin) and the Germanic languages has, with the exception of mere comparative lists of words, copious indeed, but destitute of principle and critical judgment, remained, down to the period of the appearance of the Asiatic intermediary (the Sanskrit), almost entirely unobserved, although the acquaintance with the Gothic dates now from a century and a half,’2 and that language (viz., the Gothic) is so perfect in its grammar, and so clear in its affinities, that, had it been earlier submitted to a rigorous and systematic process of comparison and anatomical investigation, the pervading relation of itself, and with it, of the entire Germanic stock, to the Greek and Roman, would necessarily have long since been unveiled, tracked through all its variations, and by this time been understood and recognized by every philologist.’3 So it is clear that in the study of the Gothic and the Sanskrit lay the key for the progress of comparative philology, and for every more serious study of any one of the Indo-Germanic languages. This key lay in Sanskrit because it was the best preserved, the oldest and most fundamental of all Indo-Germanic languages, and in Gothic because it was, if not the mother tongue in the peculiar sense of the word, at least the oldest and best preserved sister language of the Western European family. Centuries after centuries passed away during which the whole civilized world of Europe did not know anything about either Gothic or Sanskrit.

1 Ibid., p. III. 2 This is now nearly two centuries and a half. 3 F. Bopp, Comparative Grammar, I, Preface, p. VI. The study of Sanskrit in modern European philology dates from the foundation of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, in 1784. Skeat, Principles of English Etymology, p. 100. Skeat calls both the Sanskrit and the Gothic, sister languages of all the other Indo-European, and not mother languages, as at the start of comparative philology often was done.

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That there should come a time, when the scholars of Europe would make themselves acquainted with the enormous Sanskrit literature and language, was unavoidable. A language with a literature more expensive than the whole classic literature of Greece and Rome together, could not in our modern time, remain a secret to the scholars of the modern civilized world. But with Gothic the case was otherwise. In the greatest possible contrast to Sanskrit literature, which is probably the most voluminous in the world, the existing literature of Gothic is probably the smallest of any civilized nation on the globe. All there is left of the Gothic language is, besides a few short fragments, a Gothic translation of the by Bishop or Vulphilas, which comprises not the whole bible but only the greatest part of the New Testament, and some chapters of the Old Testament. And even these parts of the Gothic bible are not incorrupt. More than half of what is left of this Gothic bible of Ulfilas is contained in a single manuscript, which is called the silver-codex, or codex argenteus, because it is written for the greater part in silver letters on parchment. Now it is to Holland that the world owes the early appreciation, the preservation during many centuries, and at last the publishing - more than one and a half century earlier than any other part of this small literature was published - of this most precious codex, containing the treasures of the Gothic language.1 By the Dutchman Ludger, of Werden was founded at the time of Charlemagne, the monastery whither the silver-codex was brought from

1 ‘Niederlander haben das Verdienst zuerst auf die Reste des Gothischen hingewiesen zu haben.’ Hermann Paul, Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie, I, p. 16.

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Italy probably by Ludger himself. After having been preserved there for many centuries, it was again by a Dutchman that it was discovered, who was the first to call attention to the Gothic language. It was a Dutchman by the name of De Busbeck who in the years 1554-1564 found the only place on earth where still lived some remnant of the Gothic people, viz., in a remote corner of the Crimea in Southern Russia, and from these he collected some specimens of the old Gothic language. Later it was again a Dutchman, , who brought the silver-codex from the library of Queen Christina of Sweden to the Netherlands to make it the subject of research for the best scholars of his time, and again another Dutchman, Franciscus Junius, who studied, and then published the silver-codex, and devoted part of his life to studying the Gothic language and to beginning the more serious movement of comparative philology. After Junius, in the eighteenth century, it was the Dutch school of Ten Kate and Huydecoper, who, a hundred years before the brothers Grimm, carried on researches in Gothic and in comparative philology and who consequently began the study of mediaeval literature. And even after the great work of the German school of the brothers Grimm, when, in consequence of all these researches, the attention of all Europe was called to mediaeval literature because of its significance for the further progress of the movement, it was again the Dutch school of philologists, which produced, among others, a Dr. Jonckbloet, whose elaborate work on mediaeval literature is still in our days one of the best books of reference. It is not difficult to explain these statements a

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 31 little more elaborately, as every part of them, although scattered in many books, has been told many times before, and all there is to do is to bring them together under their common source, that is under the auspices of the Dutch nation. Ulfilas or Vulfula (310-380 A.D.) the author of the Gothic version of the bible was bishop of the East-Goths, living at that time in what was called Moesia, being the present Bulgaria and Servia. In the turmoil of the enormous migrations in Europe shortly after the death of Ulfilas, the Goths were driven from Moesia, and the West-Goths were spread over , Spain and part of France, but they soon lost their own language by adopting that of their new fatherland. By the West-Goths the Gothic translation of the bible was brought to Italy, and it is in that country that the most precious part of it, the silver-codex and some minor fragments were preserved. From Italy the silver-codex was brought to the monastery of Werden on the Rhur, about ten miles north of , near the borderline of Germany and the Netherlands, and there it was preserved till the sixteenth century. The question is, who brought the precious manuscript from Italy to the monastery at Werden? Felix Dahn1 supposes that one of the Merovingian of France, who often brought treasures from their conquests to monasteries of the Frankish empire, might have carried this Gothic codex to Northern shores. This is a possibility but not the most probable one, or rather it is not a possibility at all. A Frankish would not have brought it to Werden, a pure Frisian and Saxonian institution, but rather to one of the monasteries in the center of the

1 Felix Dahn, Urgeschichte der Germanischen und Romanische Völker, I, 423.

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Frankish empire. Moreover it is impossible that a Merovingian king could have brought a codex to the monastery of Werden, which did not yet exist in the time of the Merovingian kings. ‘Some people,’ says Massmann,’1 ‘have thought of Ludger, the famous founder of the Werden monastery, who lived for three years and a half in Italy.’ And this supposition looks much more probable indeed. Ludger was a man of great learning and ability. He was the son of a Frisian noble family. His grandfather Wurfing lived near Dokkum in and was closely connected with the court of King Radboud. Afraid of the treacherous and heathen king Radboud, Wurfing fled to the court of the Frankish prince Grimoald, who had married Theosinde, the daughter of Radboud. There, at the court of Grimoald was born Theadgrin the father of Ludger, and this Theadgrin settled later with his family at Zuylen near , where in the year 744 Ludger was born. Ludger's abilities were great from his earliest boyhood, and his education was splendid.2 After he had finished his courses in the trivium and the quadrivium at the episcopal school at Utrecht, and had learned his Greek and his Latin, he studied four years at York under the famous Alcuin, the intimate friend of Charlemagne. Ludger studied till his thirty-first year and then resolved to devote his life to missionary work among the and Saxons. He worked at first at Deventer, afterwards

1 H.F. Massman, Ulfilas. Einleitung, p. LVI. The same opinion in W. de Hoog, Studien, etc., I, 14. 2 On the life of Ludger see: 1. Alfridi vita Ludgeri. 2. Paris disquisitio de Ludgero, Frisionum Saxonumque Apostolo. Amstelodami 1859. 3. Uffingi monachi carmen de s. Ludgero. 4. Augustin Kusing. Der Heilige Ludger. Munster, 1878. 5. The best work is Dr. L. Th. W. Pingsmann. Der Heilige Ludgerus. Apostel der Friesen und Sachsen. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1879. Ludger was one of the most typical Dutchmen that can be thought of. A Frisian by birth, educated among the , and living his whole further life among the Saxons, he imbibed from his youth until his death the spirit of the three tribes which formed the three great elements of the later Dutch nation.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 33 in the Northern part of the Netherlands, especially the province of , later among the Saxons all along the borderline between the Netherlands and Germany, from the North to the South, became the first bishop of Munster, and founded at last his famous institution, the monastery of Werden on the Rhur, an important center of learning for maintaining and continuing his great work of civilization. He fully deserves the title of apostle of the Frisians, and of the Saxons. Ludger was a man of great learning, and he must have known thoroughly the Anglo-Saxon, the old Saxon, the Frisian, the Greek and the Latin languages. Not without reason one of his biographers brings his name in contact with the authorship of the great Saxon Christian epos the Heliand.1 Either by himself or by one of his pupils, under his inspiration and suggestion, the Heliand may have been written. That this man, who stayed for three years and a half in Italy should have brought from Italy some manuscripts and books to his beloved new monastery at Werden is not improbable, and when in later years in that monastery is found a manuscript which at the time of Ludger was some centuries old, then the presumption certainly is not quite without foundation that it was probably Ludger who brought it from Italy. Anyhow the monastery of Werden was a thoroughly Dutch institution, and its founder was one of the most learned men of his age, and was a Dutchman by birth and by education. It was in his monastery whither it was probably brought by his personal action, that the

1 ‘Dieses so hoch gefeierte Werk ist auf sächsischen Boden in sächsischer Mundart und um die Zeit des hl. Ludgerus geschaffen worden. War es die liebliche Frucht des von den heiligen Apostel der Sachsen ausgestreuten Samen? oder steht es in noch inniger Beziehung zum hl. Ludgerus? Schmeller, der Treffliche Herausgeber des Heliand, nimmt kein Anstand dem Heiliger selber oder doch seinen Schüllern in Werden oder Münster einen bedeutenden Antheil an der Abfassung desselben zuzuschreiben.’ Pingsmann. Der heilige Ludger, p. 170.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 34 famous Gothic silver-codex was preserved and it was discovered there in the sixteenth century.1 The first discovery of the Gothic codex in the last years of the sixteenth century, and the later more serious study of it, ending in its being published in the year 1665 at Dordrecht, was almost entirely the work of Dutch scholars. Several of them before the year 1600 speak of Gothic, and show that they know the existence of the silver-codex at Werden.2 The only book that deserves to be mentioned here is that of the Dutchman Bonaventura Volcanius, who was born at Bruges, and was later rector at Antwerp, and finally professor in the University of Leyden. It is entitled: On the literature and language of the Goths. It is written in Latin and published at Leyden in the year 1597. It was at about the time of the publishing of this little book that the silver-codex was carried from Werden to Prague,3 whence in the year 1648, just before the peace of Westphalia, it was transported by the Swedish army to Stockholm, and presented to the Swedish queen Christina.4 In the same remarkable year, 1648, the Dutch scholar Isaac Vossius (1618-1689), son of the well known Gerardus Vossius (1577-1649), came to Sweden to be the tutor of the young queen Christina in the Greek language. Now Isaac Vossius was a man who loved old books and manuscripts; he had travelled all over Europe, and at

1 When some years ago I visited Werden in order to see what was left of the great work of Ludger, I found that the old buildings of the monastery are still there, but are now used for a prison. The situation of the monastery dominating the beautiful natural scenery along the Rhur is wonderful. A statue on the bridge connecting the two sides of the Rhur attracted my attention. It was not a statue of Ludger but of the modern general Von Moltke, whose birthplace was Werden. Sic transit gloria mundi! 2 Massmann. Ulfilas. Einleitung, p. LII. 3 Ibid, p. LIII. 4 Massmann. Ulfilas. Einleitung, p. LIII.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 35 the time of his death in 1689 he left such a remarkable collection of books and manuscripts that Leyden University bought it for the sum of thirty thousand guilders, at that time an enormous price. Isaac Vossius stayed at Stockholm from 1648 till 1654 and when he came back to the Netherlands he brought with him the silver-codex of the Gothic language. In no country could this codex at that time have met with a better reception than in the Netherlands. ‘The Netherlands,’ says Herman Paul, ‘became in the second half of the sixteenth century, since the founding of the University of Leyden, the central fosterplace of sciences, and especially of philology, for all Europe.’1 It seems that the silver-codex did not become the property of Isaac Vossius, but that the great liberality and friendship of the queen Christina, allowed him to borrow it for as long as he liked. This is probable because after ten years, during which time it remained at the home of Vossius and Junius, who lived together, it was returned to the chancellor of Sweden, Count de la Gardie, and probably by his order was given to the University library at Upsala, where it has been kept till the present time. In nearly every book in which is given a story of the codex it is said that Count de la Gardie ‘presented’ it to the library of Upsala, and this gives the impression that at that time the codex was his personal property, and consequently also had been the personal property of Vossius and Junius. If that had been the case Junius and Vossius certainly never would have given or sold it to de la Gardie, and there would have been no special reason for Junius to dedicate the volume, in which he published the codex, to de la

1 Hermann Paul. Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie. I, p. 15.

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Gardie. But if, on the contrary, as I suppose, Count de la Gardie as chancellor of the Swedish government, with great liberality, left the codex in the hands of Dutch scholars for not less than ten years, then there was a real reason for Junius to dedicate the volume, in which at last the codex was published, to Count de la Gardie. Even in that case the statement the de la Gardie ‘presented’ it to the Upsala library may be maintained, but in the sense, that he did it in his quality as chancellor, and in the name of the Government. Now Isaac Vossius himself, although he had studied many languages, and for instance had made a special study of Arabic, seems to have realized that he was not the right man to study the language of the silver-codex. But he had an uncle by the name of Franciscus Junius, with whom, after his return from Sweden, he lived at the same house, and in him he found a man who, because he had for several years been absorbed in the study of those languages which stood the nearest to the Gothic, was exactly qualified for this task. So Isaac Vossius entrusted the silver-codex to the hands of Franciscus Junius. And this famous son of a famous father made the precious manuscript a subject of a research, for the results of which all philologists in the world in all times to come will give him credit, and by which he opened a new era in the comparative study of languages. Junius' father, whose name was also Franciscus Junius, a nobleman by birth, by intellect, by scholarship and by virtue, as the historian Brandt describes him, was born in 1545 at Bourges in France, studied at during the last years of John Calvin's life, and went from there as a young Reformed preacher to Antwerp in the .

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After having endured many dangers from persecution, he fled with William of Orange and with thousands of other Protestants to Germany in the year 1567, when the duke of Alva came to the Netherlands. There he stayed in several places, was for a while a preacher to William the Silent, was professor at Heidelberg and finally came back to the Netherlands in the year 1592, to be professor at Leyden University for the last ten years of his life, till he died in the year 1602. He had been married four times, and all his four wives were Dutch women. His son, who in later years became so famous for his study of the Gothic and other languages, was a child of only three years when his father became professor at Leyden. He was born in the year 1589 at Heidelberg, where his father had married a Dutch woman from Antwerp, Johanne l' Hermite, his third wife. So the young Franciscus from his earliest childhood was educated as a Dutch boy among the brave citizens of Leyden, who had suffered so much during the famous siege and among whom also Rembrandt (1609-1669) found such an inspiring education. Only thirteen years of age when his father died, he came under the guardianship of his brother-in-law, his senior by twelve years, and rector of the at Dordrecht. There he took his first courses in languages, and later he went to the University of Leyden to study theology so that in the year 1618 we find him a young minister in the Reformed church at Hilligersberg near . So we see that Junius by his university examinations really was not labelled as a philologist but as a theologian. But in the world's history the question is not how a real scholar is labelled by the school courses in his youth, but rather what be proves to be able to do. And so in later years

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 38 by his splendid work in the field of philology, Junius was graduated as a real doctor of philology, not by any school examination, but by the more important examination which posterity confers upon every man after it can be recognized what he has done in behalf of the human race. The course of events in the contemporaneous history of a nation sometimes has such an influence on the life of a man as to lead him along other lines than those which at first he seemed destined to follow. So it was with Junius. In the year 1619 in consequence of the resolutions taken at the synod of Dordrecht, Junius for being a Remonstrant was dismissed from his office as a minister. He left the Netherlands and went at first to France, but soon afterwards to England, where he spent many years in the service of Arundel, duke of Norfolk, later in the service of the noble family De Vere at Oxford as the tutor of the young count Albericus de Vere, whom during the years 1642-1646 he accompanied to the Netherlands, where he lived most of the time at the Hague. About this period of his life, probably from the year 1646 until 1648 Junius went for two years to Freisland to study the Frisic language. After the death of his brother-in-law, Gerardus Vossius, who had been his guardian, he went to Amsterdam and stayed there with his sister, the widow of Gerardus Vossius. After the year 1655, when Isaac Vossius came back from Sweden, bringing with him the Gothic silver-codex, Junius with his sister and her son Isaac Vossius settled at the Hague, where they remained together for several years till Junius and Vossius both went to England, Vossius in the year 1670 to live there till he died at London in 1689, and Junius in 1675 to live there till he died at the home of Vossius at Windsor in the year 1677.

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During his earlier years in England Junius had made a thorough study of the Anglo-Saxon and English language and literature, and one of the results was his publication of the Paraphrase of Caedmon printed at Amsterdam in 1655. Besides this he had made transcripts of many old English manuscripts.1 As a result of his study of the Frisic language he published four works: 1. Leges Frisionum to which he added a Frisic poem of four pages entitled: Hoe dae Friesen Roem wonner; 2. Liber legum et consuetudinum frisicarum, frisice; 3. Leges Frisionum antiquae editae per Sibrand Siccama; and 4. Dictionarium Frisico-Latinum to which he added: Carmina Frisica cum notis Junii ex chartis laceris. From all this we may draw the conclusion that Junius knew thoroughly the English, the Anglo-Saxon, the Frisic and the Dutch languages and that he was well acquainted with German, French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, as being a theologian from Leyden University, and it certainly was a fortunate event in the history of philology that to the able hands of this man came the main codex of the Gothic language. I fear no contradiction when I say that in all Europe hardly could have been found a man to whom the silver-codex could better have been entrusted than to Franciscus Junius. After this survey of Junius' life we return to those ten years from 1655 to 1665 during which Junius studied the Gothic language from the silver-codex, living together with his sister, the widow of Gerardus Vossius and her son Isaac Vossius. How interesting it is to see those two great Dutch scholars, Isaac Vossius and his uncle Junius, living for some years

1 See Logeman. Junius' transcripts of old English Texts, in the Academy of 1890; quoted by De Hoog. Studies, etc., I, p. 10.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 40 together a quiet life, devoted to their much beloved literary and linguistic researches in the rustic town of the Hague of that time with its beautiful environs; to see these two European scholars, who were during so many years before, nearly all the time abroad, either in France with Hugo Grotius, or in England in the company of British lords, or in Sweden at the court of Queen Christina, studying and making their researches in all libraries, leading with only a few others the development of European learning, to see those two remarkable men living together in quiet devotion enjoying the company and the delightful conversation of each other, both in their daily life under the maternal care of the widow, who was the older sister of one, and the mother of the other. Here they met with one of the great problems in the history of philology, the study and the investigation of the contents of that famous Gothic manuscript that required for several years the industrious toil of the man who more than anyone was qualified for this work. During ten years Junius occupied himself with this great and difficult task, and at the end of those ten years he gave to the world and to all posterity the results of his labor by publishing in the year 1665 at Dordrecht the four gospels contained in the Gothic codex, together with an Anglo-Saxon version1 of the same part of the bible. To this comparative edition of the four gospels in Anglo-Saxon and in Gothic, he added a little dictionary, or glossarium, as a first step for the further study of the new field. That Junius in this great effort did not immediately bring the new field of learning to its highest development, and that he made some mistakes, is no wonder indeed. The

1 This Anglo-Saxon version had been published before, viz., in the year 1571 by John Fox. De Hoog. Studies, I, p. 14. Junius however made a revised edition.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 41 best philologist of our days may look at Junius as our present engineers look at the inventor of the first steam engine. But like the work of Watts, so Junius' work was an event in history, and it began a great movement. A movement not the least in England, where Junius had lived for so many years, where he had given so much care to the old Anglo-Saxon language of the country and where he personally had gained such fame in the literary world. Scholars of good ability followed in the footsteps of Junius, and soon George Hickes,1 although a theologian by profession like Junius himself, studied successfully the Anglo-Saxon and the Gothic languages, and after him, during the eighteenth century Edward Lye wrote his famous Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon and the Gothic languages, published after the death of the author in the year 1772. It was also Lye who ameliorated the Etymologicum Anglicanum, which Junius had left to the Bodleian library, and which was published after the death of Lye, viz., in the year 1773; a work which Samuel Johnson used for the latest editions of his Dictionary of the English Language.2

1 Hickes published at least two important works: 1. Institutiones grammaticae Anglo-Saxonicae et Moeso-Gothicae, 1669. 2. Linguarum veterum Septentrionalium Thesaurus, 1705. See De Hoog, Studies, I, 16. 2 Ibid., p. 17.

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Chapter IV The Dutch School of Lambert ten Kate and Balthazar Huydecoper

In Holland not less than in England, after the example of Junius, a school of scholars arose, who studied the languages in their historical development and in comparison with each other. Arnold Moonen (1664-1711), William Sewel (1654-1720), Lambert ten Kate (1674-1731) and Balthazar Huydecoper (1695-1778) were the most prominent men of this school.1 Arnold Moonen and William Sewel studied especially the grammar of the Dutch and the English languages; Lambert ten Kate studied the relationship between the Gothic, the Dutch, the Anglo-Saxon, the German and the Icelandic languages; and Balthazar Huydecoper devoted a great part of his life to the study of mediaeval literature, which came to the foreground as a natural consequence of the study and the importance of Gothic, and consequently of all the literary remains of past centuries. Moonen published his Dutch grammar in the year 1706, which remained the textbook during a great part of the eighteenth century; Sewel, whose grandfather Jan Willem Sewel was born in the Netherlands and married a Dutch woman Judith Tinspenning, kept up his traditional love for the English language - his

1 Herman Paul. Grundriss der Germanischen Philologic. 2 vols., I. p. 35. W.J.A. Jonckbloet. Geschiedenis der Ned. Letterkunde. V, 566. Jan te Winkel. De Ontwikkelingsgag der Ned, Letterkunde, III, 354-362. Van der Aa. Biographisch Woordenboek on the names of these authors.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 43 grandfather came with the Brownists from England about the year 1600 - the mother tongue of his ancestors, and studied, besides English and Dutch, several other languages: French, Latin and Greek. He published in 1712 a Dutch grammar, in 1740 a compendious guide for the Low , in 1727 his famous dictionary of the English and Dutch languages, and in 1718 an ameliorated edition of the Flemish grammar of La Grace. But the master of this school was no doubt Lambert ten Kate. He was a man of great abilities and of fine taste. He studied not only philosophy, literature and languages, but he was as well a great lover of art, and collected a beautiful library of books about art and literature. His favorite study was, however, comparative philology. In the year 1710 he published a book on the relationship of the Dutch and the Gothic languages. But his best work was his Introduction to the higher knowledge of the Dutch language, 2 vols., Amst. 1723, in which he compared the Dutch with the Gothic, the Frankish, the German, the Anglo-Saxon and the Icelandic. After his death he left several unpublished writings, now in the University library at Amsterdam, among which is a work in two volumes on the sound system.1 Herman Paul says that Ten Kate followed in the footsteps of Junius and Hickes, but that in his historical researches into languages he excelled them by far, and that among all the scholars of the older school Ten Kate came the nearest to the point of view of Jacob Grimm.2 For etymology, says Paul, Ten Kate was the first in Europe who had a real scientific foundation for his researches.3

1 See Van de Aa. Biographic Dictionary under the name Ten Kate. 2 Herman Paul. Grundriss I, 35. 3 Ibid., p. 36.

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And last but not least, Balthazar Huydecoper was the man who saw even at the early period in which he lived the importance of all mediaeval literature, as a consequence of the historical method of studying languages which had grown up since Junius. To that historical research of languages he devoted himself almost entirely. He published Vondel's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, with manifold linguistic notes in 1730. But his best work was his edition of Melis Stoke's Rhyme chronicle of Holland, with many historical, archaeological and linguistic notes, in three volumes, 1772. This was the first edition of a mediaeval Dutch work with critical notes. ‘By these two works,’ says Dr. Jonckbloet, ‘Huydecoper has established an imperishable monument of his merit.’4

4 W.J.A. Jonckbloet. History of Dutch Literature, II, 309.

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Chapter V Holland's Share in the Revival of Mediaeval Literature During the Nineteenth Century, as the Natural Consequence of the Study of Comparative Philology.

The great movement for comparative philology, started by Junius and continued by the school of Ten Kate and Huydecoper, did not remain without influence on the important results in the field, obtained by the famous school of the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm during the first half of the nineteenth century. The relationship of all the Germanic languages was now brought under the dominion of assured rules; the laws were discovered according to which the vowels and the consonants had been changing in the different languages, since in the course of history they departed from the original, and went their own way from dialects to separate languages. The study of comparative philology became more scientific and more systematic than ever before, and the interest in the literature of mediaeval time became greater than ever, because the comparison of the modern with the mediaeval languages was the most beautiful field for the application and further affirmation of the newly discovered laws of etymology, and for the thorough knowledge of nearly every one of our modern languages. Huydecoper saw this consequence, and he published the mediaeval Chronicle of Melis Stoke; the German school followed his example with

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 46 many publications of the kind; and a new Dutch movement during the nineteenth century brought to light an abundance of mediaeval literature to which at first in our days full attention has begun to be paid. At the same time this study of mediaeval literature showed more than anything before how central and important was the position of the Netherlands, even in the earliest centuries of the middle ages. As far as Germany and its early mediaeval literature is concerned, these studies showed that the great hero of the ‘, so often called the Iliad of the Germans, was Siegfried, a Dutch prince from Santen in the Southern Netherlands, although it may be quite true as Dr. Jonckbloet says that the essential part of the story is probably much older than the settlement of the Franks in this country.1 The same study of mediaeval literature shows that the princess Kudrun of the Kudrun-story, that Odyssey of Germany, was probably as Dr. Jonckbloet proves, although others may try to deny it, a Dutch princess from the neighborhood of Antwerp; that her lover Herwig was a prince from the Dutch province of Zealand, that Moorland is Holland, and that in no way can a clearer explanation be given of the story than by this supposition, as many names in the story show. The scenery of Lohengrin, the famous story of Wagner's grand opera, was near Antwerp, on the bank of the Scheldt; Elsa was princess of Brabant and the horrible Ortrud was a daughter of the Frisian king Radboud. The same studies show that the author of the Heliand, the great Christian epos of Germany, probably was, according to the best scholars, either the Dutch missionary Ludger or one of his pupils who wrote at his suggestion. From these

1 W.J.A. Jonckbloet. History of Dutch Literature, I, 19.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 47 studies we know that the Dutch nobleman Henric van Veldeke, who was born and educated in the province of in the Netherlands was the founder and the leading star of German lyric poetry, whom the great German poets of the thirteenth century were anxious to follow. As far as France is concerned with its many mediaeval romances of chivalry, grouping around the Frankish kings, the study of mediaeval literature brought to light that the scenery of many of those romances is to be found in the Southern Netherlands, and that several of the authors of these romances even lived in the Southern Netherlands. The houses of the old Frankish kings were most closely connected with this country. Peppin of Herstal came from Herstal, a place in the Southern Netherlands. Charlemagne had one of his residences at Nimwegen. The beautiful ‘Ludwigs lied’ sings the victory of Ludwig the third in 1881 near Sancourt in the Southern Netherlands gained over the Northmen, and was probably written by Huebald from the monastery of St. Amand near Valenchijn in the Southern Netherlands. In several of those French romances we find true descriptions of nature and life as they were in the Southern Netherlands; so in the romance of de Raoul de Cambrai; so in that of Renaud of Montalban; in that of Ogier of Ardennes, in the romances of De Garin de Loharain as Dr. Te Winkel shows abundantly,1 while the romance of Auberi de Bourgoing describes a fight between the Flemings and the Frisians.2 Some of the best authors of those French romances lived in the Southern Netherlands. So for instance Chrétien de Troyes lived for a time at the court of Flanders.3

1 Dr. J. te Winkel, Jacob van Maerlant, p. 7. 2 Prof. G. Kalff, History of Dutch Literature, I, p. 95.

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Adam de la Halle and Jean Bodel lived at Atrecht.1 Of some other French romances there are quite independent conceptions in mediaeval Dutch, as for instance the Dutch version of Karel and Elegast, while the Dutch version of the Aiol has more than four hundred lines not to be found in the French original; the Dutch version of the famous animal epos Reinard is generally recognized as a quite independent conception, and on account of this beautiful conception, as the best animal epos in the world, while in the romance of the Swan, the main idea is that the dukes of Brabant were of a miraculous, heavenly descent.2 The literature of England during the three first centuries, after the Norman conquest in 1066, was nearly the same as that of France. From the conquest in 1066 till the recognition of the remodelled English language with its many French elements in the law courts in 1362, and in the schools in 1386, the predominant language in England was French; the romances, even those on old Celtic subjects, as the Arthur romances, were written and read in the , and composed for a considerable part in the Southern Netherlands, as for instance the first French Arthur romance, Le conte del Graal, was written by Chrétien de Troyes, who was living at the Flemish court about the year 1175. Of such a kind were the connections of the Netherlands with the early mediaeval literature of Germany, France and England. Was it remarkable that Dutch scholars of the nineteenth century felt themselves attracted to the study of mediaeval literature, with which their own country was so closely connected, and the study of

3 Ibid., p. 85. 1 Ibid. 2 Jonckbloet, I, 21.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 49 which was to such a large extent prepared for by their own compatriots from the time of Junius till their own? The great work of Junius, and of the school of Ten Kate and Huydecoper, kept alive the movement in the Netherlands all the time. Soon after the publishing of Melis Stoke's Rhyme chronicle by Huydecoper in 1772, the works of Jacob van Maerlant, the great master of mediaeval Dutch language and literature, attracted the attention of the best scholars. Now everybody can easily understand why the publishing of Maerlant's works was not completed in one year, or even in a few years, as they contain not less than one hundred and twenty-eight thousand lines, a quantity of which one hardly gets an idea by comparison for instance with Milton's Paradise Lost, which certainly is a long poem but nevertheless contains not more than eleven thousand lines. Only twelve years after Huydecoper published Melis Stoke's Rhyme chronicle, the first volume of Maerlant's Spieghel Historiael, his great work on the world's history, was printed in the year 1784 by the care of Dr. J.A. Clignett.1 Since that year 1784, when the first work of Maerlant was printed, the studies on Maerlant, the printing of his works, the discovery and collection of all his manuscripts was in progress for more than a century, till in the year 1891 the last volume was published, and his complete works were put at the disposal of every student of mediaeval literature. Of the Spieghel Historiael, in the meantime, a second and beautiful edition was published during the years 1857-1863 by the care of Prof. M. de Vries and his oldest pupil E. Verwijs. A great number of Dutch scholars had coöperated during these hundred years, not only

1 J. te Winkel, Jacob van Maerlant, p. 518.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 50 in publishing the works of Maerlant, but in studying the history of mediaeval literature in connection with the comparative philology. Willem Bilderdijk (1756-1831), the great Dutch poet and scholar, Dr. J.H. Halbertsma, Dr. Hendrik van Wijn, the father of the History of Dutch literature, W.C. Ackersdijk, A.C.W. Staring, M. Siegenbeek, C.J. Meyer, L. Ph. van den Bergh and J. Clarisse, assisted by some German philologists as Hoffman von Fallersleben, F.J. Monen, E. Kansler and L. Tross, followed in the footsteps of Huydencoper and Clignett in close connection with, and profiting by, the beautiful results of the school of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.1 To describe the services rendered by all these men would make this chapter too elaborate, but the work of at least one man may be especially mentioned here, viz., that of Dr. J.A. Jonckbloet. His work on the history of Dutch literature assures him forever of a prominent place among Dutch philologists, but it was his famous work on the History of Mediaeval Literature that especially gave him an European fame, and made his name immortal for all students of mediaeval literature. This history is still considered one of the great works of reference on the subject.2

1 J. te Winkel, Jacob van Maerlant, p. 498-526. 2 W.J.A. Jonckbloet, Geschiedenis der Middelnederlandsche Dichtkunst, 1854.

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Chapter VI Results of the Study of Comparative Philology and of Mediaeval Literature for the Study of English Language and Literature.

After having mentioned the importance of the study of comparative philology especially for a knowledge of the English language (1), the general results of comparative philology (2), and the share which Holland had in its inception (3), in its further development (4), and consequently in the study of mediaeval literature the only thing still to be done in this short review is to mention in a few words (5), the results of the study of comparative philology and of mediaeval literature for the knowledge of English language and literature. Whoever studies even the works of W.W. Skeat alone, and especially his Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, may notice the importance of these results in a very short time. With the utmost care, the origin of every word has now been traced as far as possible; all the different parts of the great mixture, which is called the English language, have been isolated, every point of the has been investigated, the whole history and all the changes of this language have been discovered. The results are marvelous indeed, more than for any other language because no other language is such a mixture of different elements. Not less are the results for the knowledge of English literature.

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Scholars of several nations when once they had been attracted and absorbed by the wonderful charms of comparative philology, studied not only their own national literature, and language, but they found interesting sources for research in the literature of all those languages of which the mutual relationship was discovered. This was a consequence of the idea itself of comparative philology, which meant to compare the different languages as found in the literature of many nations. So for instance a man like Franciscus Junius published not only the Gothic, but at the same time the Anglo-Saxon, version of the Gospels, and his transcripts of many Anglo-Saxon manuscripts have been the subject of a special essay by Dr. Logeman. Not less was Junius' work in publishing Caedmon's Paraphrase, an immediate consequence of his researches in the field of comparative philology. From these few examples one sees how this science influences the development of the study of English language and literature. Only the development of comparative philology has made it possible to study the influence of one nation on the language and the literature of another, as that of Holland on the English language and literature, to distinguish the different elements of a language, which, like the English has been mixed during many centuries with elements from many different sources; to trace the origin and genesis of every piece of literature and the influences that have inspired their respective authors. It is in this whole movement in which, as I showed, Holland had such a remarkable share, that from the time of Junius till our present day the numerous monographs, essays, pamphlets and articles in periodicals have been published, which now taken together furnish the material for a general glance over the whole field and for finding out, for

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 53 instance, what influence England exerted on the literature and language of other nations, as well as that which other nations exerted on the English language and literature. It is by collecting this scattered material that I will try to recapitulate the results of men like Skeat and De Hoog, and in continuing the epoch-making work of such men, to bring to the attention of the English-speaking people the influence of Holland on English language and literature as set forth in a concise form in the following pages.

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Part II Holland's Influence on the English Language

Chapter VII The Close Relationship Between the Dutch and the English Languages

According to the genealogy of the Indo-Germanic languages as given in our sketch in the second chapter of the first Part, the Dutch and the English languages are seen to he most closely related to each other. They are as closely related to each other as two sisters in the genealogy of a large family and more closely related than even Dutch and modern German. ‘Although the pronunciation may differ very much,’ says De Hoog, ‘there is a greater similarity in words between the English and the Dutch even than between the Dutch and the German.’1 The vulgar idea that the Dutch language is pretty nearly the same as the German, and that English and Dutch differ much more than German and Dutch, is good enough for those people who know these languages only by conversation but it cannot find favor with better informed philologists. The philologist knows that in the early middle ages Dutch and English were

1 W. de Hoog, Studien, First edition, I, p. 63; Second edition, I, p. 153. This author does not hesitate to make the statement that ‘we may freely say that of all the foreign languages none has so much similarity with the Dutch as the English,’ I, 154.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 56 much more alike than at present; that therein lies the reason why missionaries from the British isles could make themselves understood very easily among the tribes of the ; that even the language of Chaucer still shows a surprising similarity to the Dutch, and that still in the year 1600 a man like the great historian Van Meteren, during the glorious time of the Netherlands, when England was far behind in civilization, could call the English language ‘only a broken Dutch.’1 The reason, however, why this close relationship between the English and the Dutch is not observed at first sight, is not only the difference in pronunciation, but the difference in the way in which the words in both languages are written. But the main difference between Dutch and English is in the arrangement of words, and in the use of prepositions and conjunctions.2 And last but not least, since the predominance of the French language in England during more than three hundred years, from 1066 till 1400, the English has been mixed with such an overwhelming element of French words, and French expressions, that this makes the similarity of the original and pure English, to the Dutch still more obscure to the common reader. Nevertheless, to be convinced of the close relationship, says de Hoog,3 it may suffice to look through any dictionary to find a list of words like this:

Eng. anchor, Dutch anker; cf. ankle, enkel; apple, appel; ash, asch; beacon, baken; bean, boon; bear, beer; beard, baard; beast, beest; bed, bed; beech,

1 Van Meteren, Historie, I, 489. 2 De Hoog, Second edition, I, 175. 3 Ibid, First edition, I, 63. In his second edition the author gives this list only till the word ewe, supposing that everybody easily can make a similar list. This is certainly true, but most readers will not do it and yet will find an interest in looking through his list..

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 57 beuk; begin, beginnen; bell, bel; bind, binden; bitter, bitter; bleat, blaten; blind, blind; block, blok; blood, bloed; blossom, bloesem; blue, blauw; bosom, boezem; bottom, bodem; break, breken; bread, brood; breast, borst; breed, broeden; bride, bruid; bridge, grug; bridle, breidel; bring, brengen; broad, breed; breadth, breedte; brother, broeder; brown, bruin; buckwheat, boekweit; busy, bezig; butter, boter; to clatter, klateren; clay, klei; clear, klaar; clock, klok; dance, dansen; daughter, dochter; dead, dood; deaf, doof; dear, duur; dearth, duurte; deed, daad; deep, diep; devil, duivel; dike, dijk; door, deur; dough, deeg; dove, duif; dream, droomen; drench, drenken; drink, drinken; earnest, ernstig; ear, oor; earth, aarde; eat, eten; east, oost; elm, olm; etch, etsen; evil, euvel; ewe, ooi; give, geven; glass, glas; grave, graf; great, groot; greet, groeten; green, groen; guess, gissen; guest, gast; hail, hagel; hair, haar; hammer, hamer; haste, haast; haven, haven; heap, hoop; hear, hooren; heart, hart; hedge, hegge; heed, hoede; heel, hiel; hell, hel; helm, helm; help, helpen; herring, haring; hide, huid; hind, hinde; hire, huren; honey, honig; hope, hoop; hot, heet; house, huis; howl, huilen; hunger, honger; , kussen; knead, kneden; knee, knie; kneel, knielen; ladder, ladder; lade, laden; lamb, lam; lamp, lamp; land, land; lane, laan; last, leest; late, laat; lead, ; lead, lood; leak, lekken; light, licht; lisp, lispelen; little, luttel; live, leven; liver, lever; loan, leen; long, lang; length, lengte; loose, los; make, maken; market, markt; mew, meeuw; might, macht; mildew, meeldauw; mill, molen; monk, monnik; mouse, muis; mustard, mosterd; nail, nagel; naked, naakt; name, naam; neck, neck; need, nood; needle, naald; nettle, netel; night, nacht; nightingale, nachtegaal; north, noord; oven, oven; oak, eik; open, open; oyster, oester; plank, plank; plant, plant; plaster, pleister; plough, ploeg; prince, prins; quarter, kwartier; radish, radijs; raven, raaf; reckon, rekenen; reed, riet; rich, rijk; ring, ring; rose, roos; sand, zand; saw, zaag; singe, sengen; sink, zinken; sister, zuster; sit, zitten; sketch, schets; slave, slaaf; sluice, sluis; smear, smeren; smith, smid; , sneeuw;

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 58 soap, zeep; sole, zool; son, zoon; soul, ziel; soup, soep; sour, zuur; south, zuid; spade, spade; spare, sparen, spear, speer; speed, spoed; split, splijten; spring, springen; spread, spreiden; sprout, spruiten; staff, staf; star, ster; starve, sterven; state, staat; still, stil; stink, stinken; stone, steen; storm, storm; strand, strand; straw, stroo; stream, stroom; street, straat; strive, streven; study, studie; swallow, zwaluw; swarm, zwerm; swear, zweren; sweat, zweten; swell, zwellen; swim, zwemmen; swine, zwijn; table, tafel; tame, tam; tea, thee; thank, bedanken; thing, ding; token, teeken; tongue, tong; tread, treden; tumble, tuimelen; wade, waden; wain, wagen; warm, warm; wash, wasschen; water, water; wax, wassen; wealth, weelde; weapon, wapen; weasel, wezel; weather, weder; weave, weven; week, week; weigh, wegen; weigh, gewicht; welcome, welkom; what, wat; wild, wild; will, wil; willow, wilg; woe, wee; wolf, wolf; wonder, wonder; work, work; world, wereld; worm, worm; wring, wringen. Not only the resemblance of a great number of words, but a comparison of the English and Dutch grammars and of both with the Gothic, shows that the whole structure and foundation of English and Dutch are the same. The regularity with which differences in vowels and consonants occur between English and Dutch words, shows their original similarity, while the different way in which they are written today finds its cause in a difference of pronunciation. So great is this regularity that long since a great number of rules have been discovered according to which these differences in vowels and consonants have been brought about. Is a verb strong in its conjugation in Dutch, it is also strong in English; is it weak in Dutch, it is also weak in English. And for the philologist, who is able to separate all the foreign elements, and to discover the original language of the Saxons who crossed the Channel, later called Anglo-

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Saxons, and the language of the Saxons who remained on the Continent and mixed with other Low Germanic tribes like the Frisians and the Franks, and formed the Dutch nation - for the philologist who studies both languages in their growth through so many centuries, English and Dutch appear clearly to be two sisters in the great family of the Indo-Germanic languages. To explain this more elaborately would lead us too far away from the main idea of this work, and it may suffice for more particulars to refer to such books as those of W. Skeat and W. de Hoog. But another question which really belongs here is this: How can two languages which in their origin are like two sisters of one family, have exerted so much influence one on the other as to furnish each other with many words, and with words, which really are not foreign words to both, but belong indeed to one of them and are borrowed by the other? How could the English people borrow words from the Dutch; words which are really Dutch and not borrowed by the Dutch themselves from French or German or from any other language, if we presume that both the English and the Dutch nations sprang from tribes which spoke the same dialects or languages? This question is answered in the best way when we hold for a moment to the comparison of the two sisters. If, in one and the same family, there are two sisters who have received a very different education, then, although they speak the same language, the one, who developed more rapidly and got a broader knowledge of many things, will at last have a much larger and richer vocabulary than the other who secured only a poor education and a very limited knowledge. In the same way it was possible that the Dutch, who during several centuries had a

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 60 regular, a never interrupted, and splendid development, in accordance with it acquired a large vocabulary, while the English during the same time only followed from afar. On the contrary, when during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the English nation developed enormously, while the Dutch was declining, it is very probable that during this time the English will gain the supremacy, will develop a rich vocabulary, while the Dutch become the people that follow and borrow names and new words for new things which were introduced from England.

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Chapter VIII Why the Influence of England on Dutch Language and Literature is of Recent Date, While that of Holland on English Language and Literature Occurred Much Earlier and During Several Centuries.

Although not included necessarily in the plan of this little volume, yet a few words about the influence of England on Holland, and its language and literature, may find here a place, since some one who reads these pages may ask the question: Was not the influence of Holland on England a mutual one, and did not England exert as much influence on Holland as the latter did on the former? This question may be not a necessary one, it is nevertheless so closely connected with our subject that a few words of explanation may not be superfluous. It is interesting, anyhow, in connection with our subject to keep in mind at least a general outline of the whole relation through history between the two countries. Now this is in the main dominated by three circumstances: 1. The course of general civilization from east to west; 2. The peculiar development of civilization in England which was interrupted by several conquests; and 3. The regular development of the Netherlands as a world-center of civilization some centuries earlier than the development of England as a world-empire.

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In the explanation and interpretation of these three observations we find the history of the relations between Holland and England. I. Civilization took its course from East to West. It is generally accepted that in Asia is to be found the cradle of the human race. From Asia came the tribes which spread over Europe. From the eastern empires of Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Persia and Palestine, civilization came to the shores of Europe. At first Greece, later the Roman empire, became the center of civilization in Europe, and from Greece and Rome it spread over the western countries of Europe under the leadership of the mediaeval Christian church. So Christian civilization soon reached the shores of the Atlantic, came to the Netherlands, and crossed the Channel to the British Isles, after the way had been prepared by the armies of heathen Rome. Holland was part of the European Continent, was most closely in contact with the rest of Europe, and became speedily the center of trade between the Baltic and the Mediterranean, between the heart of Germany and England. But England had a more isolated position, was not so closely connected with all Europe, and had not that central position which was the privilege of Holland. So the Netherlands and especially the Southern Provinces soon became a center of trade and industry, of art and literature and of all civilization, while the development of civilization in England remained far behind. II. To this course, taken by the history of civilization, must be added the circumstance that the development of civilization in England had been interrupted several times by the most awful conquests, accompanied by wholesale devastations of every previous civilization. England has been conquered, first by the

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Romans, then by the Angles and Saxons, later by the Danes, after that time by William the Conqueror with his Normans, and especially the last conquest, and in connection with it the dreadful wars with France, followed by the war of the Roses, have exerted an influence on the civilization in England, which finally left that country during the fourteenth and fifteenth century in a condition far behind the civilization of some other parts of Europe, especially of the southern Netherlands. All these conquests, most of them depressing and influencing the whole people for a long time, and accompanied as they were by murder and devastation, by robbery and oppression, have together brought a rough, as well as a dramatic element, into English national life, a life which was full of tragic stories, noble fights and criminal performances. This may to a certain extent explain the early development of English literature, and especially of the drama, at a time when the general standard of civilization was still very low. In the dramas of Shakespeare we see the results of the whole history of England till that time; a true mirror of all its great events, all its energy, all its crimes, all its activity, all its sufferings, as well as of all its display of brute power and roughness. This peculiarly rough, but powerful, individualism, full of energy and activity was able to produce exceptions like Shakespeare, Marlowe and Spenser, in a time when the general standard of English national life was very low indeed. This is surprising, and to be explained only by the conquests of the island and the nearly perpetual oppression of a large part of the English people. Even at the present time, notwithstanding all the world-power and wealth of England, it has as its ‘poet laureate’ no better man than Robert Bridges; as its history of English literature no better

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 64 work than that of the Frenchman Taine; as its best painter no better man than Alma Tadema, a Dutchman by birth and education; while in winning Nobel prizes it remains far behind the Netherlands of today; and in preserving mediaeval feudalism even in its institutions of learning, it is more conservative than almost any other country in the world. Yet in our time the general standard of national life in no other country is as high as in England. When in our days we look at the splendor and the wealth of the British empire, with its overwhelming position, and compare with it the modest position of the kingdom of Holland, we are inclined to believe that such may have been always the situation and we hardly imagine how entirely different it was some centuries ago. But as far as we are not blinded by the present situation, and ask just for the truth of history, we learn that some centuries ago, not England, but the Netherlands were far ahead in general civilization, and in national standard of life, and we find the cause of the backwardness of English national life in the many conquests, and nearly perpetual oppression of the people in English History. III. On the contrary the national life in the Netherlands since the crusades developed very fast and regularly. Modern democracy arose in the cities of Flanders sooner, and more splendidly, than in any other country in the world. Charles V (1500-1558) himself born at Bruges in the same Southern Netherlands, where once, at Herstal, stood the cradle of the great Carolingians - Charles V, the Emperor of Germany, the King of Spain, the Lord of the Netherlands, on whose empire the sun did not set, the man of the world-empire of his time, got two-fifths of all his income from the Netherlands, where learning and

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 65 civilization had their headquarters, where luxury and wealth was accumulated by trade and industry. And at the same time England under the Tudors was so far behind in national civilization, that we are astonished when reading what the best historians tell us about it. At the time when Elizabeth (1558-1603), ‘the good queen Beth,’ came to the throne, England's trade was little, and its industry did not amount to anything; the best citizens were put to death, or fled from the country to escape the persecutions of Bloody Mary; most of the land belonged to the lords of the castles, and nearly all the revenues of the country had to come from the wool it produced, as being in the main a pastoral land, so that the ‘woolsac’ is even today taken for the symbol of the origin of England's wealth. At this time, when in the Netherlands, according to the Italian historian Guiciardini, everybody knew how to write, and to read, in England many even of the Peers of the land could neither write nor read. At a time when in the Netherlands, in one city (Antwerp), five hundred marble palaces of the wealthy merchants were destroyed by one conquest, and the ladies dressed like princesses, so that the French queen one time in the year 1301 at a banquet at Brughes exclaimed: ‘I thought that I was the only queen here, but I see that all ladies are queens,’1 - at that time and even two centuries later the houses of the upper classes in England were described by Erasmus (otherwise full of admiration for the English people) in these words: ‘The floors are commonly of clay, strewed with rushes, which are only lifted at long

1 Groen van Prinsterer, Textbook of Dutch History, p. 17. Incredible, says Groen, was the welfare of the Flemish cities Ghent, Ypres and Brughes. Ghent alone had 80,000 citizens able to go to war. This was in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 66 intervals, and under which lies unmolested, an ancient collection of beer, grease, bones, spittle and every nameless abomination.1 In Skikton Castle, belonging to the earl of Cumberland, and built in the year 1572, as one of the most splendid castles of Northern England according to Hallam ‘none of the chambers had chairs, window glass or carpets.’2 Even Queen Elizabeth did not know the use of the fork and ate her meat with her fingers; her perpetual habit of swearing like a common soldier everybody knows; and historians like Froude and Hallam tell us that the standard of morality at that time in England was not higher than the standard of elegance in English homes, and in the English way of living. No wonder that a good many of the English soldiers, who at that time came to the Netherlands, were looked at like ‘half naked barbarians,’ worse than even the Spaniards in roughness and cruelty. The Dutch skilled laborers and farmers, who settled in England's eastern and south-eastern districts, found there easily a living, while on the contrary the Pilgrim fathers at Leyden could hardly make a living, because their standard of education and skill was lower than that of their Dutch competitors. The simple historical truth is, that at that period the undeveloped energy of the English people was still waiting for the time of its glorious unfolding, and that, notwithstanding the exceptional examples of Spenser, Shakespeare and some other individuals, the general standard of English civilization was very low, while at the same time that of the Netherlands was ahead of all Europe.

1 Marcus Dods, Erasmus and other Essays, p. 13. Other descriptions of English houses in Douglas Campbell, The Puritans, I, 326, v.v. and the authors quoted there. 2 Hallam, Middle Ages, quoted by Campbell, I, 327.

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The glorious time for England, as a whole, came in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. That of the Netherlands was in the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is not in the least in favor of the Netherlands, neither a disgrace to England, but merely a chronological fact, that the development of civilization, of wealth, and power in the Netherlands came some centuries earlier than in England. But the consequence of this historical fact is, that during the centuries of higher civilization, Holland exerted permanently its influence on England, on English language and literature; and, on the contrary, that the time in which England exerted some considerable influence on Holland is to be sought especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and in our present time. Nearly all the words of English origin in the Dutch language are of very recent date, and never in history have so many English books been translated into Dutch as in our present time. On the contrary nearly all the words of Dutch origin in the English language are from earlier ages, and the influence of Holland exerted on English literature dates from those centuries when Holland was in its glorious days, and when civilization in the Netherlands was at a higher development and more general than in any other country in the world. And while at present Holland cannot be said to have any influence whatever on England in general, including English language and literature - except in South Africa - it is a matter of fact that every year English words are creeping into the Dutch language, and that English literature exerts an influence on Dutch literature which nobody can deny. All history proves that whenever two countries, by

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 68 their natural situation, have permanent and frequent intercourse with each other, either one or the other will exert a more dominant and prevailing influence, and which one shall dominate depends at any time upon the question in which of the two countries civilization, power and wealth are more prominent. The predominance of the Netherlands we find as far back as the time in which William the Conqueror brought Flemish soldiers, and Flemish weavers, to England, and married a Flemish princess, but is to be found especially from the fourteenth till the eighteenth centuries, while that of England begins in the eighteenth century and has been working in its full power through the whole nineteenth century till our present time. Yet England's influence on Holland never could be so very important, for the simple reason that France as well as Germany are in more close contact with Holland than England.

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Chapter IX The Influence Exerted on the English Language is Entirely Different from that on English Literature.

However closely and even inseparably language and literature may be connected, yet they are not identical, and the influence which Holland exerted on the English language is entirely different from that on English literature. The Flemish weavers and soldiers, brought to England by William the Conqueror, the thousands of skilled laborers and farmers, who settled in the eastern districts of England during several centuries, and the great mass of refugees who fled to England during the sixteenth century, all lived among the English people, mixed with the English population, taught different things to the inhabitants of England, and used for those things their own Flemish names. They introduced Flemish words into England; those words were added to the English vocabulary, and in that way all those people exerted some influence on the English language, but this influence did not touch English literature. On the contrary when scholars like Erasmus and Franciscus Junius, Vossius and Van der Noot came to England, they spoke from the beginning the English language, or they spoke Latin. They did not introduce Flemish words into the English language, but by their writings, by their conversation and correspondence they brought new ideas, new suggestions

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 70 for the literary men, for the scholars and poets; they exerted an influence on English literature. And even without coming themselves to England, when the works of scholars and poets in the Netherlands are spread over England, and read by men of education and learning, then the influence of these scholars and poets on English language is nothing, but on English literature it may be considerable. English soldiers and refugees came to the Netherlands by the thousand; they saw there things, and learned there industries which they did not know before; they heard the names for all those new things, and for every part of them, in the Dutch language; they grew familiar with these Dutch words and terms, and coming back to England, they continued to use these Dutch terms as they learned them in Holland. Their influence is only on the English language, not on English literature. But when hundreds of students from England and Scotland come to Leyden University to study there all kinds of sciences, and some of them in later time write books in England, then we see the influence of what they studied in Holland, and in their writings we shall find something of the influence which Holland exerted on English literature. The common citizens, the unlearned people, the men of industry, trade and agriculture, these are the people that are making and changing the language. So a language is changing all the time. ‘Growth and change,’ says Whitney, ‘make the life of language, as they are everywhere else the inseparable accompaniment of life. A language is living when it is the instrument of thought of a whole people, the wonted means of expression of all their feelings, experiences, opinions, reasonings; when the connection between it

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 71 and their mental activity is so close that the one reflects the other, and that the two grow together, the instrument ever adapting itself to the uses which it is to subserve.’1 But the scholars and poets, the learned men of high education, the philosophers, the statesmen and the clergymen, the people who propagate and practice their ideas in state, in church and in society - these are the men who are making the literature. Now when the things that happen in Holland in any department of life are important, and interesting enough to attract the attention and the interest of English people, and to influence their writings, then we can say that Holland has an influence on English literature, which is the result of this interest. When a nation is ahead in industry and trade, in navigation and agriculture, in a word, in all those things which touch immediately the life and the daily work of the common people, then it is very likely that words and terms in connection with all these things will be introduced into the language of that other nation, which has to learn and to follow. But when a nation is ahead in religious and political ideas and movements, in sciences and in art, or in social movements, then it is very likely that philosophers and statesmen, clergymen and poets, in a word all those people who make the literature of a nation, will feel the influence of the leading nation, and in such cases we observe the influence of one nation on the literature of the other. Now in the case of Holland and England every historian knows that during centuries Holland was far ahead of England in industry and in trade, in

1 William Dwight Whitney, Language and the Study of Language, p. 32.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 72 navigation and in agriculture, as well as in political, religious and social ideas and movements, in sciences and in art. Consequently, before having made any further researches, we may suppose that during those centuries Holland has exerted some influence on the English language, as well as on English literature, an influence which the following pages may show more clearly.

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Chapter X How It Happened that Holland Exerted Influence on the English Language

The first man, and till the present time, at least in England and America, the only man who has made any elaborate investigation of this question, is the Rev. W.W. Skeat. In his ‘brief notes,’ in the introductory part of his Etymological Dictionary he says: ‘The introduction into English of Dutch words is somewhat important yet seems to have received but little attention. I am convinced that the influence of Dutch upon English has been much underrated, and a closer attention to this question might throw some light even upon English history. I think I may take the credit of being the first to point this out with sufficient distinctness. History tells us that our relations with the Netherlands have often been rather close. We read of Flemish mercenary soldiers being employed by the Normans, and of Flemish settlements in Wales, “where,” says old Babyan (I know not with what truth), “they remayned a longe whyle, but after, they sprad all Englande over.” We may recall the alliance between Edward III, and the free towns of Flanders; and the importation, by Edward, of Flemish weavers. The wool used by the cloth-workers of the Low Countries grew on the backs of English sheep; and other close relations between us and our nearly related neighbors grew out of the brewing-trade, the invention of

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 74 printing, and the reformation of religion. Caxton spent thirty years in Flanders (where the first English book was printed), and translated the Low German version of Reynard the Fox. Tyndale settled at Antwerp to print his New Testament, and was strangled at Vilvorde. But there was a still closer contact in the time of Elizabeth. Very instructive is Gascoigne's poem on the Fruits of War, where he describes his experience in Holland, and everyone knows that Zutphen saw the death of the beloved Sir Philip Sidney. As to the introduction of cant words from Holland, see Beaumont and Fletcher's play entitled “The Beggar's Bush.” After Antwerp had been captured by the Duke of Parma, “a third of the merchants and manufacturers of the ruined city,” says Mr. Green, “are said to have found a refuge on the banks of the Thames.” All this cannot but have affected our language and it ought to be accepted as tolerably certain that during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, particularly the last, several Dutch words were introduced into England, and it would be curious to inquire whether, during the same period, several English words did not in like manner find currency in the Netherlands.’ I wonder why Dr. Skeat did not mention, even in this brief outline, the influence of the persecutions for religious reasons, by which for instance under Charles V and Philip II thousands of Dutchmen fled to England, and under Bloody Mary, as well as under the Stuarts, at many times, thousands of English people found a refuge in the Netherlands. The armies, often, of several thousands of English soldiers, who were stationed for many years in the Netherlands during Elizabeth and later as well, must have felt the influence of Dutch, but on scattered

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 75 refugees all over the Netherlands we may expect a far greater influence. During the reign of Elizabeth we meet in the Netherlands not only Leicester and Sir Philip Sidney with thousands of English soldiers, but noblemen as well, like Sir John Norris, and Sir Francis Vere, and Lord Willoughby, as well as Sir Roger Williams, who in the year 1587 was one of the defenders of Sluys in Zealand, and many others, among whom were some of bad repute, as for instance Sir William Stanley, the betrayer of Deventer, and Rowland York, who betrayed the fortress of Zutphen. The two sons of Charles I, with a great number of their adherents, found refuge in the Netherlands, and the story of Argyle and Monmouth shows how many English refugees in later time during the persecutions of Charles II and James II lived in the Low Countries, just as the Pilgrim fathers lived there at an earlier time during the years 1609-1620. Not only did many thousands of English people live in Holland either as soldiers or as refugees, and become acquainted there with many Dutch words and expressions, but, on the other hand, thousands of Hollanders had lived in the eastern districts of England for centuries, while in the time of Elizabeth, during the reign of the Duke of Alva, the population of some cities in the eastern parts of England was more than half Dutch. The question of how far Holland exerted influence on England has been made a subject of special research by Douglas Campbell in his work, The Puritans, and the material brought together in his book certainly has spread more light, but the subject seems far from being exhausted. And yet in these researches we find more and more the way along which

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 76 many Dutch words have come into the English language. W.W. Skeat has treated this question a little more elaborately than in his dictionary, in his work, ‘Principles of English Etymology,’ Vol. I, Chapter XXIV, where he gives the following explanation: ‘When we consider that it has long been an admitted fact, that numerous English words were directly borrowed from Scandinavian, being brought over from in the tenth and eleventh centuries, it seems strange that so little is said in our grammars about the borrowing of English words from the and Old Friesic. Morris, in his Historical Outlines of English Accidence, gives a meagre list of thirteen words borrowed from Dutch, none of them being of any great antiquity in English. , in his Grammatik, iii. 150, gives a list of about forty words which he supposes to be of ‘Niederdeutsch’ origin. Such a treatment of the subject is surely inadequate. It remains for me to show that this element is of considerable importance, and should not be so lightly passed over, as if the matter were of little account. ‘The first question is, at what period are we to date the borrowing of English words from the Netherlands? The right answer is, that the dates are various, and the occasions may have been many. It is conceded that several sea-terms are really Dutch. Dr. Morris instances , cruise, , (Du. boom, kruizen, jagt, older spelling jacht); as well as the word . But the last instance is incorrect; the original name was scooner,1 and originated in America, but was afterwards turned into schooner

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 77 because such was the Dutch spelling of the word after they had borrowed it from us! It is just one more instance of drawing a false induction from correct premises. Because should and would are spelt with l, could is spelt so too; and because sloop and yacht are Dutch, schooner is supposed to be the same. But we may, I think, safely add to the list the nautical terms ahoy, aloof, avast, belay,1 caboose, hoist hold (of a ship), , hull, lash (to bind spars together), lighter (a barge), marline, moor (to fasten a boat), orlop (a kind of ship's deck), (fishing-boat), reef (of a sail), reef (a rock), reeve, rover (sea-robber), to sheer off, skipper, (fishing-boat), splice, strand (of a rope), swab, ; which, with the four already mentioned, give more than thirty Dutch words in nautical affairs alone. Even pilot is nothing but Old Dutch, disguised in a French spelling.2 ‘But there is another set of words of Dutch origin, of a different kind, which must also be considered. It is from the Netherlands that some at least of the cant terms current in the time of Elizabeth were borrowed, though a very few may be of Gipsy origin, and may thus be traced to the East. When Fletcher the dramatist wrote his play of the Beggar's Bush in 1622, it is remarkable that he laid the scenes in Ghent and in the neighborhood of Bruges, and makes Gerrard, who is disguised as the King of the Beggars, and understands a cant dialect, the father of a rich merchant of the latter town. It is clear whence Fletcher obtained the cant words which he introduces into his dialogue so copiously. They are much the

1 From prov. E. scoon, to glide over water. See the story as told in Webster's Dictionary; a story which I once doubted, but find to be true; see Whitney, Study of Language, 1868, p. 38. Schooner has no sense in Dutch, and is known to be borrowed from us. 1 In some senses, all obsolete, belay is a native English term. As a nautical term, it first appears in The Complaint of Scotland, ed. Murray, ch. vi, p. 41 (1549). 2 See the note on this difficult word in the Supplement to my Dictionary. W.W. Skeat.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 78 same set as may be found in Awdeley's Fraternitye of Vagabondes, first printed in 1561, and in Harman's Caveat for Vagabondes, printed in 1567; see Furnivall's edition of these books for the Early English Text Society, which contains a Glossary, and an additional list of words at p. xxii. Harrison, in his Description of England, bk. ii. c. 10 (ed. 1587), says that the trade of the vagabonds, or roving Gypsies, had begun some sixty years previously, and that their number was said to exceed ten thousand. I suppose they reached England by way of Holland, and picked up some Dutch by the way; though it will be found that the main portion of the cant language is nothing but depraved and debased English, coined by using words in odd senses, and with slight changes, as when, e.g., food is called belly cheer, or night is called darkmans. The following are some of the old cant terms which I should explain from Dutch. Bufe, a dog;1 from Du. baffen, to bark. Bung, a purse; Friesic pung, a purse. Kinchin, a child (Harman, p. 76); Du. kindekin, an infant (Hexham). Pad, a road, as in high pad, high road; Du. pad, a path, hence the sb. padder, a robber on the road, now called a footpad, and pad-nag, a road-horse now shortened to pad. Prad, a horse; Du. paard, a horse; Slates, sheets; Du. slet, a rag, clout. Hexham, in his Old Dutch Dictionary (1658), records a verb facken; ‘to catch or to gripe;’ which suggests a plausible origin for the cant word fake, to steal. It is to be remarked that some of the cant terms seem to be borrowed from parts of the continent still more remote than Holland; for fambles, hands, is plainly Danish, from the Dan. famle, to handle; whilst nase, drunk, is precisely the High G. nass, used literally

1 The modern slang word for dog is buffer (Hotten).

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 79 in the sense of ‘wet,’ but figuratively in the sense of ‘drunk;’ the Low G. form being nat. ‘There was a rather close contact between English and Dutch in the days of Elizabeth, due to the war against Spain. After Antwerp had been conquered by the Duke of Parma, ‘a third of the merchants and manufacturers of the ruined city,’ says Mr. Green, ‘are said to have found a refuge on the banks of the Thames.’ We should particularly note such a poem as that entitled the Fruits of War, by George Gascoigne, where he describes his experiences in Holland. He and other English volunteers picked up Dutch words, and brought them home. Thus, in st. 136 of that poem, he says that he ‘equyppt a Hoye;’ where hoy, a boat (Du. hey) is a word still in use. In st. 40, he uses the adj. frolicke to express cheerful or merry which is borrowed from Du. vrolijk spelt vrolick by Hexham; Ben Jonson who also had served in Holland spells it froelich, as if it was hardly naturalised, in The Case is Altered, Act i, sc. 1. In his Voyage to Holland, Gascoigne quotes several Dutch sentences, which he explains by means of notes. He also introduces the word pynke, which he explains by ‘a small bote;’ this is mod. E. pink (Du. pink). In Ben Jonson's well-known play, ‘Every Man in His Humour,’ we may find several Dutch words. Thus he has guilder as the name of a coin, Act iii, sc. 1; this is a sort of E. translation of Du. gulden, literally golden, also the name of a coin; Hexham gives: ‘een Gulden, or Carolus gulden, a Gilder, or a Charles Gilder; een Philippus gulden, a Philips Gilder.’ Again, he has lance-knights, foot-soldiers, in Act ii, sc. 4 [or 2]; this is merely the Du. lansknecht, which has also been taken into French (and

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 80 even into English) in the form lansquenet. In Act iii, sc. 1, he has the sb. leagure, and the derivative beleag'ring; we still use beleaguer, from the Du. belegeren, to besiege, the Du. sb. being leger, a camp. In Act ii, sc. 1, he has quacksalvers, mountebanks, from Du. kwakzalver; the word is still common in the abbreviated form quack as applied to a physician. ‘There are several Dutch words in Shakespeare, who quotes one word as Dutch when he says - ‘lustig, as the Dutchman says;’ All's Well, ii., 3, 47; where lustig means ‘in excellent spirits.’ The list of Dutch words in Shakespeare is a much longer one than might be expected. I give it here, referring to my Dictionary for the etymologies. It runs thus: boor, brabble, burgomaster, buskin (ed), canakin,1 cope, v., copes-mate,2 crants (Du. krans or G. Kranz), deck (of a ship), deck, v., doit, foist, fop, , fumble, geck, a fool (Du. gek), gilder, a coin, glib, adj., glib, v. (M. Du. gelubben, to castrate), groat, heyday or hoyday, used as an interjection, hogshead, hoise, not hoist, hold (of a ship), holland, hoy, hull (of a ship), jeer, jerkin, leaguer, a camp (Du. leger), link, a torch, linstock, loiter, lop, manakin, minikin, minx,3 mop, mope, rant, ravel, rover, ruffle, sloven(ly), snaffle, snap, snip, snuff, v. to sniff; sprat, sutler, swabber, switch, toy, trick, uproar, waggon,4 wainscot. Many of these terms are nautical, such as deck, hoise, hold, hoy, hull, rover (sea-pïrate), sprat, swabber; others are just such words as might easily be picked up by roving English volunteer

1 ‘Een kanneken, A small Canne’; Hexham. Skeat. 2 ‘From Du. koopen, to barter, and M. Du. maet, a mate (Hexham) But mate is also E., though hardly so in this compound.’ Skeat. 3 ‘This difficult word has been at last explained by me, in the Phil. Soc. Trans., 1886. It is merely the Friesic (and Bremen) minsk, variant of Du. mensch, a man, or (when neuter) a wench.’ Skeat. 4 ‘Waggon was re-introduced into England from abroad, long after the A.S. waegn had passed into E. wain.’ Skeat.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 81 soldiers, viz. boor, burgomaster, buskin, doit, fop, frolic, geck, gilder, heyday, hogshead, jerkin, leaguer, link, linstock, loiter, lop, manakin, minx, snaffle, sutler, switch, trick, uproar, waggon; indeed, in the case of some of these, as doit, gilder, jerkin, leaguer, link, linstock, snaffle, sutler, trick, waggon, the connection with military affairs is sufficiently obvious. ‘For other words of (presumably) Dutch origin, see the list in my Etym. Dic., 2nd ed. 1884, p. 750; or my Concise Etym. Dict., p. 607.’ ‘In the case of the majority of these words, the certainty of their being borrowed from the Low Countries is verified by their non-occurrence in . They nearly all belong to what I have called the modern period, viz., the period after 1500, when the introduction of new words from abroad excites no surprise. A more difficult and perhaps more important question remains, viz., as to the possible introduction of Dutch or Low German words into Middle English. We are here met by the difficulty that Old Dutch and Middle English had a strong resemblance, which may easily mislead an inquirer. Thus Mr. Blades, in his Life of Caxton, 1882, p. 2, speaks of ‘the good wife of Kent, who knew what the Flemish word eyren meant, but understood not the English word eggs.’ But the whole point of the story depends upon the fact that the word for ‘eggs’ was eggis in Northern and Midland English, but eyren in the Southern dialect; in fact, eiren occurs in the Ancren Riwle, p. 66, and is formed by adding the Southern en to the form eyr-e, resulting regularly from the A.S. pl. aegru. Mr. Blades tells us we must ‘bear in mind that the inhabitants of the Weald had a strong admixture of Flemish blood in their best families, and that cloth was their chief,

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 82 and probably only manufacture.’ All this may be true, but the particular anecdote which is quoted to prove it does, in effect, prove nothing of the kind. It proves, rather, that the language of the Saxons who came to England did not originally differ from the language of those of their fellows whom they left behind; and the points we have to determine are rather, to what extent had the differentiation between these two tongues proceeded at any given date, and what evidence have we of the actual borrowing of Dutch, Friesic, or Low German words at various periods? A convenient period for consideration is that which extends over the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when there were especially close commercial relations between the English and Flemish. The Libell of English Policye, written in 1436, speaks of the ‘commoditees of Flaundres’ at some length, and reminds the Flemings that their great manufacture of cloth was dependent upon England, as it was nearly all made of English wool, to which Spanish wool was inferior. The writer adds that merchandise from Prussia, and even from Spain, reached England by way of Flanders, which was indeed ‘but a staple1 to other lands.’ We might expect such Flemish or Dutch words as occur in Middle English to apply to various implements used in such trades as weaving and brewing, and in mechanical arts, but it is very difficult to investigate these matters, since the English were already well supplied with necessary words. Still, I think the word spool is a clear instance of a borrowed word. It occurs, spelt spole, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, about 1440, and in another Vocabulary of the fifteenth century; and answers to

1 ‘The very word staple is certainly Low German, slightly disguised by a French spelling.’ Skeat.

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M. Du. spoele, Du. spoel, Low G. spole. The native E. word is reel (A.S. hreol). ‘Other low words which I regard as having been borrowed from various forms of Low German rather than as forming part of the stock of native English are the following: botch, to patch; bounce, boy, brake (for flax), bulk (in the obsolete sense of trunk of the body), cough, curl, duck, v., to dive; fop, girl, groat, hawker, huckster, kails (a game), knurr or knur, a knot in wood, wooden ball; lack, s. and v.; lash, to bind together; loll, loon, luck, maxer, mud, muddle, nag, a horse; nick, notch, orts, pamper, patch, plash, a pool; rabbit (?), rabble, scoff, scold, shock, a pile of sheaves; shudder, skew, slabber, slender, slight, slot, a bolt; spool, sprout, tub, tuck, v., tug, unto. All these words are, I believe, found in the Middle English period, but not earlier; and in some cases the fact of the borrowing is certain. Thus groat is Low G. groot, the E. form being great; mazer is a bowl made of the spotted wood of the maple, the M.H.G. word for ‘spot’ being máze;1 tub, Low G. tubbe, may have been brought in by the brewing trade, together with vat (Du. vat); hawker and hukster are certainly not native words; kails is a Dutch game, from the Du. kegel, a cone, a sort of ninepins. Some of these words appear in Friesic, and it is possible that they belonged to the word-stock of the Friesians who came over with the Saxons, but this will always be, in the absence of evidence, a very difficult point. ‘The E. Friesic Dictionary by Koolman gives some help; I note the following: Bummsen, to bounce, from bumms, the noise of a heavy fall; boy,

1 ‘Koolman utterly misses the etymology; he seems to have trusted to Jamieson's Dictionary for English, as he mentions no other authority.’ Skeat.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 84 a boy, nearly obsolete in Friesic; brake, a flax-brake; kuchen, to cough (the A.S. word is hwóstan); krul, a curl, krullen, to curl; duken, to duck, bend, down; foppen, to befool (the M.E. foppe being used to mean a foolish person, see my Supplement); grote, grot, a groat; höker, a hawker; kegel, a kail; knure, a bump; lak, a defect; lasken, to lash together; lóm, tired, slow, whence M.E. lowmish, slow, stupid, and E. loon or lown (for *lowm); lük, luck, mudde, mud; muddelen, to muddle; ort, ort, remnant; plas, plasse, a plash, pool; rabbeln, rappeln, to chatter, rappalje, a rabble, schelden, to scold; schüddern, to shudder; slabbern, slubbern, to slabber or slubber; slicht, smooth, also slight; slöt, a lock; spole, spol, a spool; sprute, a sprout, bud, spruten, to sprout; tubbe, a tub. The difficult word touch-wood is easily explained when we find that the M.E. form was tache, tinder, or inflammable stuff, answering to E. Friesic takke, a twig, takje, a little twig. ‘Richthofen's O. Friesic Dictionary also gives some help; we should especially notice the following: dekka, to thatch; fro, glad (cf. E. fro-lic); grata, a groat; luk, luck; minska, a man, for menska, which is short for manniska (cf. E. minx); pad; a path (cf. E. foot-pad); skelda, to scold; skof, a scoff; slot, a lock; snavel, mouth (cf. E. snaffle); spruta, to sprout; ond-, und-, on-, a prefix, the same as E. un-, into un-to. ‘There is a glossary to Heyne's Kleinere altniederdeutsche Denkmäler, which gives several hints; I note particularly the words be-scoffón, to scoff at; scok, a shock of corn; slot, a lock; unt, unto. The Bremen Wörterbuch also throws much light upon Low German forms; for example, it gives bunsen, to bounce, from the interj. bums, signifying the noise

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 85 of a fall, showing that the n in this word is due to putting n for m before a following s. ‘A most useful Dictionary of Old Low German has lately appeared, by K. Schiller and A. Lübben. As a specimen of the information to be derived from it, I quote the following: “Bosse, botze, boitze, Art grobes Schuhwerk;” which explains E. botch, to patch. The authors add the following curious passage: “Nullus allutariorum ponet soleas sub calseis, quae botze dicuntur.” Again, they remark that gör, a girl (whence E. girl) is much used in dialectal speech, though it seems scarce in books. I also find hoken, to hawk about, and hokeboken, to carry on the back, which makes me think that my guess as to huckaback, viz., that it originally meant “pedlars' ware,” may be right. Other useful entries are: knerreholt, thin oaken boards (evidently wood with knurrs or knots in it); lucke, luck; masele, measles, spots; maser, maple; “enen maseren kop”; a maple cup, a mazer; muddle, mud; ort, ort; placke, a patch; plasken, to plash or plunge into water; plump, interjection, used of the noise made by King Log when he falls into the water; plunder, booty, plunderwaare, household stuff, especially bits of clothing; rabbat, a rabble, mob; schock, a shock, or heap of corn, Schocken, to put into shocks; schudden, to shake, shudder; slampampen, to live daintily (cf. E. pamper); sprot, a sprat, etc. It is somewhat surprising to find in this work the phrase ut unde ut, which is precisely our out and out. We want all the light that is obtainable to guide us in this matter. ‘After all, some of the above words may be found in A.S. glosses, or may occur in unpublished texts. The word dog seemed to me to be borrowed, the E. word being hound; in fact, we find Du. dog, M.

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Du. dogge, Swed. dogg, Dan. dogge, Low G. dogge. But in the A.S. glosses to Prudentius, we find: “canum, docgena;” showing that the A.S. form was docga. I have supposed the word split to be Scandian; but the occurrence in O. Friesic of the original strong verb split-a renders it probable that split may, after all, be of A.S. or Mercian origin. The word mane is not in the A.S. dictionaries, so that I believed it to be a borrowed word from Scandinavian. But the publication (in 1885) of Mr. Sweet's Oldest English Texts shows that the A.S. form was manu, which occurs in the very old Erfurt Glossary. We must also bear in mind that the Northumbrian and Mercian of the oldest period have almost entirely perished.’ So far the results of W.W. Skeat. In Modern Philology for July, 1908, W.H. Carpenter, Professor in Columbia University, New York, published an interesting entitled: Dutch Contributions to the Vocabulary of English in America. Dr. Carpenter gives first an outline of the history of the Dutch settlement on Manhattan, Long Island, along the Hudson River, in the Mohawk Valley and wherever they were found; he tells that notwithstanding the short period of the Dutch government in New York, and the overwhelming influx of English immigrants into New York City since the English occupation in 1664, yet the Dutch language was maintained in many of the smaller settlements, and to some extent even in New York City, where ‘down to 1764 the Dutch language was still used exclusively in the service of the Dutch Reformed church, although Dutch had not been taught for a century in the schools. In Flatbush, on Long Island, Petrus van Steenburgh, who was appointed schoolmaster in 1762, was the first who taught English in the school

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 87 that had been established more than a century before (1659). He gave instruction nevertheless in both languages. His successor in 1773, Anthony Welp by name, was the last teacher who was required to teach Dutch.’1 Under the constant influence of English, this American colonial Dutch, like the Dutch of the in Africa, was of course more and more perverted. Yet many words of the Dutch settlers passed into the English language and the American-English ‘dictionaries have considerable lists of words that are derived directly from borrowings from the Dutch language in America.’2 Dr. Carpenter gives a list of seventy-six of these words, as follows: boss, n. master, patron (Du. baas). clove, n., cleft, ravine, pass (Du. kloof). cold'-slaw', cole'-slaw', n., sliced cabbage served as a salad (Du. kool, cabbage, slaa salade, salad). cook'y, cook'ey, cook'ie, n., a small sweet cake (Du. koekje). crul'ler, n., a fried sweet cake (Du. krullen, to curl). dom'ine, dom'inie, n., a clergyman (Du. domine, a Protestant clergyman). dope, n., a thick liquid (Du. doop, sauce, gravy). dorp, n., village (Du. dorp). kill, n., a creek, stream, channel (Du. kuil). kill'-fish', kil'li-fish', kil'ly-fish', kil'lie, n., a fish, especially Fundulus heteroclitus (Du. kil fish). The Dutch word was doubtless likvisch.

1 W.H. Carpenter, ‘Dutch Contributions,’ etc., in Modern Philology, July, 1908, p. 58. 2 Carpenter, p. 59.

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o'ly-koek', o'ly-coek', better o'ly-cook', pronounced also ol'ly-cook', n., a sweet cake fried in fat, a doughnut (Du. olie, oil, koek, cake). patroon', n., proprietor of a manor (Du. patroon, patron, master). Pink'ster, Pinx'ter, Ping'ster, n., Whitsuntide; now only in Pinksterbloom, Pinksterflower, the wild azalea (Du. Pinkster. Du. Pinksterbloem is the peony). Santa Claus, Klaus, n., Saint Nicholas (Du. Sant Klaas dim. of Kikolaas). , n., a flat-bottomed boat (Du. schouw). scup, n. vb., a swing; to swing (Du. schop, schoppen). slaw, n., cabbage salad (Du. slaa salade). speck, spec, n., pork, fat (Du. spek, bacon, fat, lard). The statement in the STANDARD that ‘the form speck is due partly to G. speck and partly to D. spek’ is undoubtedly correct. spook, n. vb., a ghost, to haunt (Du. spook). Stoop, n., entrance platform at door of a house, porch (Du. stoep). vly, fly, vley, vlei, vlaie, n., a swamp, marsh, shallow pond (Du. vallei, valley). waf'fle, n., a batter cake (Du. wafel). The following words are contained in the two dictionaries, but with no suggestion of a Dutch origin: blick'ie, blick'ey, n., a tin pail (Du. blikje (dim.), metal basin, bowl). CENTURY (N.J.), but with no suggestion of origin; STANDARD, Penn. D. bleck, G. blech. The ending -ie, -ey shows indubitably that the word has come from the Dutch diminutive. Tin blickey also occurs, with an obliteration of the real sense of blickey.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 89 bush, n., a wood, grove, thicket, as in ‘sugar-bush,’ ‘Flatbush’ (Du. bosch, same meaning). Neither the CENTURY nor the STANDARD suggests a connection of the word in this meaning with Dutch. The usage is not English; and in the many instances in which the word occurs alone, e.g., ‘to take to the bush,’ or as part of a compound in America and Africa, e.g., ‘bushman,’ ‘bushranger,’ ‘bushwhacker,’ and the like, it has undoubtedly come in through Dutch influence, exerted at one time or another, upon the vocabulary. STANDARD: bosch, (S. Afr.) with its true signification, but does not connect it with the above word. Both the phonetic form of the original and the presence of bush in the English vocabulary have made the thorough incorporation of the word possible. dob'ber, n., a fish-line float (Du. dobber, same meaning). STANDARD: (Local, U.S.), but no suggestion of Dutch origin. Not in CENTURY. dumb, adj., stupid, dull (Du. dom, same meaning). CENTURY: (Local, U.S. In Pa. this use is partly due to the G. dumm). STANDARD: (Local, U.S.) Compare G. dumm. The word in this sense has come in from both Dutch and German, according to locality, since it is used in territory where there is no thought of German influence, and again, where there could have been no Dutch influence exerted. file, vb., to scrub, mop, scour (Du. feilen, same meaning). STANDARD: (Local, U.S.) Vb. not in CENTURY. file, n., mop (Du. feil (?), same meaning). CENTURY: In some parts of U.S., a cloth used in cleaning or wiping the floor. Also filecloth. Not in STANDARD.

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pit, n., the hard kernel of certain fruits (Du. pit, kernel, pith). CENTURY: Variety of pip, by confusion with pit (U.S.). STANDARD: (U.S.) Variety of pip. slaw'bank, n., a folding bed (Du. slaap, sleepbank, bench; compound Dutch word in same meaning). STANDARD, no etymology suggested. Not in CENTURY. snoop, vb., to pry into. Hudson and Mohawk valleys, to eat stealthily (Du. snoepen, to enjoy stealthily, to eat in secret). CENTURY: (Probably a variety of snook, M.E. snoken, to lurk, pry about). STANDARD: (For snook L.G. snoken, search). snoop'y, adj., sly, stealthy (Du. snoepig, same meaning). STANDARD. Not in CENTURY. All of these words, it may confidently be asserted, owe their presence in the vocabulary to Dutch influence. In the following words the Dutch origin is correctly assumed by one or the other of the two dictionaries, but not by both: hook, n., point of land, cape (Du. hoek, same meaning, e.g., Hoek van Holland). This sense of the word is Dutch and not English. STANDARD has correctly (D. hoek). CENTURY suggests no connection with Dutch. hoop'le, n., a child's hoop for trundling (Du. hoepel (dim) hoop). CENTURY: (Dim. of hoop, after D. hoepel). STANDARD suggests no connection with Dutch. Paas, n., Easter (Du. Paasch, same meaning). CENTURY has correctly (D. paasch). STANDARD: (Local, U.S.), but with no suggestion of Dutch origin.

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The word also occurs in: Paas-day, Easter; Paas-flower, the yellow daffodil. wink'le'-hawk, n., an angular rent in cloth (Du. winkelhaak, a rent, tear). CENTURY has correctly (D. winkelhaak). STANDARD: (Local, U.S.), but with no suggestion of Dutch origin. Also occurs as wink'lê-hole. ‘In the following words the correct Dutch origin is suggested by both dictionaries, but is not definitely assumed by either: bock'ey, n., a dish made from a gourd (Du. bakje, (dim.), bowl, basin). CENTURY: Probably D. bakje, dim. of bak. STANDARD: (Prov., U.S.), but with no assumption of Dutch origin. fike, fyke, n., a bow-net (Du. fuik, a hoop-net). CENTURY: fyke (Perhaps D. fuik, bow-net). STANDARD: fike (Local, U.S.) (Perhaps D. log.) Both dictionaries, in not taking account of the inflected form, have failed to reconcile ‘logy’ definitely with Dutch log. ‘The following words are not found in the dictionaries at all. It is quite likely that many of them are in use only in restricted localities. Some of them, however, are widely distributed and are perfectly vital parts of the common vocabulary. It should undoubtedly be possible to add still further to this list, which, as has been said, is only tentative. The new words in their usual orthography are as follows: afease', afeese', adj. vide fease. aw're-griet'chies, n. pl., maize coarsely ground (Du. aar, ear of corn; grutjes (dim.), grits). Hudson valley. bedrooft', bedrowft', bedruft', adj., miserable, despondent (contempt), sad, sorrowful, gloomy (Du. bedroefd, same meaning). Hudson valley.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 92 bin'nacle, bin'nakill, ben'nakill, n., the smaller channel of a river running back from the main stream (Du. binnen, within, kil, channel). Kil acquires in America, where it very frequently occurs in place-names and as a common appellative, a meaning which it apparently never had at home, viz., brook, stream, river; but it also is used in its original signification, as in Arthur Kill, i.e., achter kil, back channel. Widely used. John Burroughs, ‘Pepacton’; ‘binocle, a still, miry place at the head of a big eddy;’ vide also communication to the Evening Post, February 22, 1901, by Edward Fitch. blawk'er, n., a flat bedroom candlestick (Du. blaaker, blaker, same meaning). Hudson valley. blum'mie, blum'mey, n., flower, blossom (Du. bloempje (dim.), same meaning). Mohawk valley. blum'machie, n., flower, blossom (Du. bloemetje (dim.), same meaning). Mohawk valley. boond'er, v., to brush away, drive away (Du. boenderen, to scrub, brush). Hudson valley. clip, adj., stony (Du. klip, rock, cliff). STANDARD DICTIONARY: klip (S. Afr.), a rock or stone, cliff, mountain. Hudson valley. coss, n., wardrobe, chest of drawers (Du. kas, chest; kast, cupboard, closet). Hudson valley. door'slag, n., colander, strainer (Du. doorslag, same meaning). Schenectady Co. fease, feese, adj., disgusting (Du. vies, nauseous, disgusting). To be fease of a thing or person: e.g., I am fease of him, he disgusts me; I am fease of it, etc., which coincides with the Dutch usage. Widely distributed. Occurs also as afease.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 93 geheist', p.p. as adj., overreached, e.g., ‘he's gehesit,’ he has overreached himself (Du. gehuisd, housed, lodged, domiciled). Hudson valley. grill'y, adj., chill, raw, e.g., ‘to-day is so grilly that I shall not go out’ (Du. grillig, same meaning). Hudson valley. herk'ies, herk'eys, n. pl., haunches, e.g., ‘squat down on your herkies’ (Du. hurk: op de hurken zitten, to squat; hurkjes (dim.).) Schenectady Co. hock'ies, hock'eus, n. pl., soused pigsbones, i.e., the joints above the pochies, q.v. (Du. hakjes (dim.) pasterns, hocks). Hudson valley. kip, n., a word used in calling chickens, e.g., ‘come kip, kip!’ (Du. kip. hen, fowl.) Schnectady Co. kon'kepot', n., gossip, huzzy, scold, e.g., bedrufter konkepot, a miserable scold (Du. konkelpot, same meaning). Hudson valley. lop'pie, lap'pey, n., small mat made of rags (Du. lapje (dim.), rag, shred, remnant). Hudson valley. mol'lykite', n., foolishness (Du. malligheid, softness, mildness, weakness). Hudson valley. mont, n., basket (Du. mand, same meaning). Hudson valley. Schenectady Co. niskeer'y, adj., curious, inquisitive (Du, nieuwsgierig, same meaning). Hudson valley. off'doch, n., inclosed stoop (Du. afdak, shed, penthouse). Schenectady Co. plock, v., to settle down (Du. plakken, to remain sitting, to stay long). Hudson valley. poch'ies, poch'eys, n. pl., soused pigsknuckles, i.e., the joints above the toes (Du. pootjes (dim.) feet). Hudson valley.

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poos'ly, adv., tolerably, indifferently well (Du. passelijk, same meaning). Hudson valley. prat'chie, prat'chey, n., talk, gossip (Du. praatje (dim.), same meaning). Hudson valley. proyt'el, v., to boil softly, to chatter, to prattle (Du. preutelen, to boil, to grumble). Hudson valley. proyt'ler, n., pratter (Du. preutelaar, grumbler). Hudson valley. pum'mel-ap'pelye, n., the berry of the wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), (Du. pommel, plant appeltje (dim.), apple). Hudson valley. slob, n., bib (Du. slobbe, same meaning). Hudson valley. sluck, n., swallow, draught (Du. slock, same meaning). Schenectady Co. spree, n., a homewoven bed-quilt, usually blue and white (Du. sprei, counterpane, coverlet). Hudson valley. stone'-rawp'ie, -rawp'y, ston'y-rawp'ie, n., a stony field (stone + Du. raapje (dim.) (turnip) field; cf. raapland, raapakker, raapier). STONE ARABIA, Montgomery Co., is apparently this word, although the connection does not seem to have been noticed. The Dutch word was doubtless steenraapje. unno'zel, adj., silly, simple (Du. onnoozel, same meaning). Hudson valley. Wurst, wust, n., sausage (Du. worst, same meaning). Schenectady Co. and Hudson valley. Widely distributed. The word in U.S. is due partly to Dutch worst and German wurst.’ So far Dr. Carpenter. The conclusion from all the material till this time brought together by Skeat, Carpenter, Douglas

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Campbell, Thorold Rogers and many historians is this: From the time of William the Conqueror in the eleventh century, when Flemish soldiers and Flemish weavers were brought over to England, till the time of Prince William III of Orange, who brought about the glorious revolution of 1688 to protect and confirm forever the rights of the English people, Holland has been all the time in close contact with England. During these more than six hundred years the people of the Low Countries have exerted an influence on the English people in general civilization, in learning, in trade, in industry, in agriculture, in art, in literature, and in nearly every part of human life. In a word, the world power of Holland was previous to that of England: Holland was ahead in nearly everything; England's time of glory and of world power succeeded that of Holland, and so it can be easily understood why many Dutch words and terms became part of the English language. For the same reasons we can understand that in the nineteenth century, when Holland had for a long time lost its glorious position, while England was developing into a world empire, the influence of England on Holland became more important, and not the least on Dutch language and literature. The position of Holland in the world's history, especially from the year 1200 till the year 1700, is indeed sufficient to explain everything. A position in the history of Europe and of all the world which Thorold Rogers describes in this way: ‘The debt of modern Europe to Holland is by no means limited to the lessons which it taught as to the true purposes of civil government. It taught Europe nearly everything else. It instructed communities in progressive and rational agriculture. It was the pioneer in navi-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 96 gation and in discovery; and, according to the lights of the age, was the founder of intelligent commerce. It produced the greatest jurists of the seventeenth century. It was preëminent in the arts of peace. The presses of Holland put forth more books than all the rest of Europe did. It had the most learned scholars. The languages of the East were first given to the world by Dutchmen. It was foremost in physical research, in rational medicine. It instructed statesmen in finance, traders in banking and credit, philosophers in speculative sciences. For a long time that little storm-vexed nook of North-western Europe was the university of the civilized world, the centre of European trade, the admiration, the envy, the example of nations.’1 In the researches of W.W. Skeat this general position of Holland in the world's history is referred to, but is far from being fully recognized. And while this eminent scholar, as stated above, does not realize the influence of the religious persecutions in Holland as well as in England, on the other side he overestimates the influence of the gypsies. The English refugees came into close contact with the Dutch people; so did the English soldiers serving in Dutch armies, and the Dutch refugees in England, as well as the Dutch traders and settlers in England's eastern districts, had permanent contact with the English people. But the gypsies never and nowhere came into close and intimate contact with the nations in whose country they lived for a short time; their life was a separate one, and their influence in bringing Dutch words to England can easily be overestimated.

1 James E. Thorold Rogers, Holland. In the History of Nations, Preface. Thorold Rogers is a well known English scholar and professor in the University of Oxford.

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Chapter XI The Influence which Holland Has Exerted on the English Language

Foreign elements never had any considerable influence either on the grammar or on the syntax, but their effect was mostly confined to the introduction of a small or a large number of words. Even the influence of the French language of the Norman conquerors, which was the official language in England during more than three hundred years, has not changed very much the grammar or the syntax of English. But the influx of French words was enormous. So, if Holland has exerted some influence on the English language, that influence is not likely to be found in the introduction of alterations in English grammar or syntax but is to be sought in the vocabulary of the English language. More recently than the researches of Skeat and Carpenter, a Dutch scholar, W. de Hoog, has published a remarkable list of words, in alphabetic order, which have been introduced into the English language by the Dutch. De Hoog does not take the English language as it is in any one period of history, but as it is to be found in all English literature. Consequently some of these words, which were at one time used by the best authors, are in our time hardly understood even by scholars. But nevertheless they occur in works belonging to English literature and

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 98 therefore Mr. de Hoog was perfectly right to include them in his list. I give the list of words as Mr. de Hoog published it, with this difference only, that I have translated his explanations from Dutch into English. About some words there may arise doubts, but such doubts are always found in etymological studies, and it lies in the very nature of this field of study to give in many cases room for some difference of opinion. Anyhow I give this list as it is: viz., as constructed by the scholarly hand of Mr. de Hoog, and as the best list existing at this moment. The purpose of this little volume is not to specialize in etymology, but to call the attention of American scholars to one more argument showing that there is an interesting field for research in Dutch History, Art, Literature and Language, a broad and beautiful field which up to this time has been almost totally neglected, even in the greatest Universities of America. The vast progress of etymology in our days gives abundant hope that within a few years a better list may be published by some scholar who may begin his researches with the results of Skeat, Carpenter and de Hoog. This list contains 448 words: aam, other Eng. forms ame, awm, aume. D. aam. Ger. ahm, ohm. L. Lat. ama. A measure of liquids, particularly of wine, containing about 40 gallons. The measure varied in different cities (Antwerp, Dordrecht, etc.). aardvark - earth pig. An edentate mammal in South Africa, feeding on ants. The name originated with the Dutch settlers at the Cape of Good Hope who thought the animal resembled a pig. aardwolf, a South African carnivorous quadruped, living in holes in the ground. Named by the Dutch

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 99 settlers at the Cape of Good Hope, who thought it resembled a wolf. afterdele - dis-advantage. cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. achterdeel. afterfeet - hind leg. cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. afterste voet. ahoy. Interjection. cf. Ship ahoy! A naval expression used to hail . ‘A’ intensifies the meaning. From D. hui! cf. H.G. hui. aloof - on a distance. cf. to hold aloof, to stand aloof. a - on cf. afoot, asleep, abed; on loof, D. te loef, te loeve waart, te loevert, te loever - against the wind. cf. Eng. to luff, to loof. amelcorn - an inferior variety of wheat. From D. amelkoren, a kind of wheat; the meaning of the word is unground grain. cf. Lat. amylum. anker - a liquid measure of 8 to 10 gallons. Formerly used in England. Fr. ancre. M. Lat. ancheriam (ia), a small Carrel. A measure of wine and fish. D. anker. The English spelling also shows its Dutch origin. The ultimate origin of this word is uncertain. Armenian - an adherent of the doctrine of Arminius. From D. Arminiaan. Arminius rejected the doctrine of predestination. Arminius is the Latin name for Harmensen. arquebus - a kind of gun. From Fr. arquebuse, taken from the original D. haakbus. haak-hook. These guns had a hook under the barrel. M.D. haecbusse. cf. Eng. hackbut, bus, bowse, harquebus. avast - stop! cf. avast heaving. A naval expression from D. hou vast! It is found, for example, in ‘Poor Jack’, a sailor's song by Charles Dibdin (1745-1814):

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Avast! nor don't think me a milksop so soft, To be taken for trifles aback; For they say there's a Providence sits up aloft, To keep watch for the life of poor Jack! back, beck, bawke - a large shallow vessel, a vat, a tub, bucket, a vessel used in brewing. From D. bak. balked - became angry. cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. balch - of belgen - to swell. Cf. D. verbolgen, blaasbalg. balken - to signify to fishing-boats the direction taken by the shoals of herrings, as seen from a height. From D. balken. A.S. bealcian. Eng. to belch. to bale (bail) - to empty water out of a ship by means of bails (or buckets). It is found in Hackluyt's Voyages ‘Having freed our ship thereof (of water) with baling.’ As a substantive it is seldom (but already in 1466) found in Eng. Cf. The bail of a canoe made of a human skull (Capt. Cook, 1772). In D. balie, in also bale, baal. Not found in M.D., and perhaps taken from the Fr. substantive baille - tub. The Eng. word ‘to bale’ is probably taken from the D. baaliën, though the resemblance is closer in spelling than in pronunciation. In D. it is often found. Cf. Toen vielen zÿ met alle macht aan het baaliën. (Brandt. De Ruyter 487). Wÿ zaten aan den bak ... een groote balie met snert. (Marine-Schetsen by Werumeus Buning). Cf. baliemand. The derivation is as yet uncertain. ballast - a load of sand, stone, iron, etc., to steady a ship. Dan. ballast, baglast; Sw. barlast. In Eng. not much used, seldom figuratively. ‘It is charity must ballast (steady) the heart’ (Hammond). In Eng. and D. used only since the 15th century.

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For example, in Hackluyt's Voyages and in Charters of Amsterdam Ao 1544. The oldest form is ‘barlast’ in older Swedish and Danish. According to Kluge and Murray, barlast - bare last - bloote last, a load (-last) which has no value itself, as distinguished from the real load. According to others bal(e) means useless. Cf. D. baldadig. In D. ballast - sand, stones, iron, etc., which is laid in the ship to give the necessary stability, so that, even without other load, the ship will not be in danger of capsizing. The figurative meaning in D. proves that it has been in use formerly, and that the meaning of ‘strength’ had been lost already to make place for that of ‘nuisance.’ Cf. Zet's werelds ballast aan een zÿ (De Dekker). Probably it will be proved ultimately that the word is not a compound but a derivative. Cf. Eng. to ballast, ballastage, ballaster. bay - baize. Introduced into Eng. in the 16th century. From D. baai, and this from O. Fr. baie. to bedrive - to commit, to do. 1481 Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. bedriven, to act, to do. to bedwynge - to restrain. Cf. 14480 Caxton's Ovid. From M.D. bedwingen - to necessitate, to dominate. beer - mole, pier. From D. beer - dam. belay - to fasten a rope by wrapping it round and round a couple of pins. As a nautical term it first appears in the Complaint of Scotland, 1549. It is probably derived from the D. beleggen. M.D. beleggen. beleggen - to fasten ropes to something, fig. to fasten, cf. D. geld beleggen. An Eng. verb to belay, M.D. beleggen, with the meaning of to besiege is found already in Gower and Spenser.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 102 to beleaguer - to besiege. It appears not to have been used till 1590. Sir J. Smythe, Weapons. From D. belegeren (from the substantive leger (army) - to encamp around a city in order to conquer it. Cf. Sw. belagra - to besiege. Eng. leaguer. to berisp - to censure. Cf. 1481 Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. berispen - to scold, to reproach. biltong - strips of meat dried in the sun. South African. Also called bultong. From D. bil + tong. It looks much like an ox-tongue. blas - J.B. Van Helmont's term for a supposed influence of the stars, producing changes of weather. From D. blas. bluff - downright rude, frank. In Eng. used for the first time in 1627. Cf. a bluff point or bluff - a steep bank of rocks (1790 Cook's voyages). Bluff King Hall; a bluff shore (Falconer). A bluff sea-captain (W. Scott). Perhaps the same as the D. blaf - flat wide, given by Kiliaan 1599; D. blaffer - a clamorous proud person. blunderbus - a short gun with a large bore; blunder derived from D. ‘donder’ (-blunder) because of the firing at random of this weapon. From D. donderbus. boil - a hard tumour, a swelling. Cf. (1481 Caxton, Reynard) two grete bules. From M.D. bule, D. buil, cf. Eng. beal, M.E. bele, from O. Norw. beyla. bomespar - a spar of the larger kind. From D. boomspar. boom - a beam, a pole, barrier, cf. Howell, Letters, 1650, p. 215. A naval expression. From D. boom. Cf. Eng. jibboom. boor, boer - a peasant, a tiller of the soil. Cf. boorish; the Boors - the Dutch speaking settlers of

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South Africa. Already in ‘Beaumont en Fletcher's Beggars' Bush,’ 1622. Derived from D. boer with dialectic oe instead of ü - buurtgenoot. Boer is etymologically the same as buur. Cf. Eng. neighbour. border - an edge. M. Eng. bordure. From Fr. bordure, which is derived from O.L.G. Cf. D. boord. boussyng, bonssinc - a polecat. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. bonsinc, bonsem, boesinc. D. bunsing. bosch - bosh - Bosch butter - artificial butter manufactured at 's Hertogenbosch or den Bosch in Holland: butterine. From D. Bosch, 's Hertogenbosch. boss - leading man, master, chief. Frequently used in America. Cf. Eng. to boss it. From D. baas. boss, bass - a plasterer's tray, a hod. From M.D. bosse, busse, bus, pot., cf. Eng. box. to botch - to patch. Already in Wycliff, 1382 ‘eche feble thingus thei bocchyn’ (repaired). From O.L.G. botze, cf. D. botsen - intens, of boeten. M.D. boeten (-to repair), cf. D. netten boeten, ketelboeter. bottomry - a mortgage on a ship. From D. bodemery - lit. to lend money on the bottom of a ship - to lend money on a ship or its cargo, especially in a foreign harbor, when the ship has been damaged and needs repair. to bounce - to knock, to jump up quickly. M. Eng. bunsen, bounsen (to strike suddenly). From O.L.G. bunsen. Perhaps it is an onomatopoetic. D. bonzen. bouse, boose, bouze, booze - to drink deeply. M. Eng. bousen. Cf. Spenser, A bouzing can - a drinking

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 104 vessel. Slang; boozy - drunk, intoxicated. From D. ‘buizen’. M.D. busen. D. ‘buis’ (intoxicated). The D. buizen is derived from O. Fr. buse, cf. M.D. buse - cup, vase and finally small ship. Cf. D. haringbuis, Eng. buss. bowery - a farm. From D. bouwerij. bowse - a harquebus. Cf. Eng. arquebus. boy - a youngster. M. Eng. boy, boi. From O.L.G., Fries. boy. Cf. D. boef. M.D. boef - young man, knave. Cf. stalboef. to brabble - to quarrel. Cf. brabble, a brabbler. From D. brabbelen - onomatopoeia. In Marieken of Nymegen brabbelinghe is found with the meaning; nonsense. Cf. The Story of Mary of Nimwegen, 1510. Cf. D. Roemer Visser's Brabbeling. brack, brackish - somewhat salt, briny, said of water. North's Plutarch, p. 471. In Gawain Douglas we find D. brak - brackish. Cf. M.D. brac. From D. brak. The derivation uncertain. brake - a bush, thicket. M. Eng. brake. From O.L.G. Fries. brake, cf. D. braakland. brake - a machine for breaking hemp; a contrivance for confining refractory horses; a name for various mechanical contrivances. M. Eng. brake. Cf. M.D. brake, a contrivance to fasten horses. From O.L.G., cf. D. braak. brandy - an ardent spirit. From brande-wine, brandy-wine. In Beaumont and Fletcher's Beggars Bush 1622. From D. brandewÿn, brandwijn, distilled wine. branskate - to put a place to ransom, or subject to a payment, in order to avoid pillage or destruction. From D. brandschatten. brantcorn - blight, smut. From D. brandkoren. Name of disease of grain, caused by a kind of fungus.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 105 brassem - a kind of fish. A dark-olive colored river fish. D. brasem. Cf. Eng. bream. brick - a lump of baked clay. M. Eng. brique. From Fr. brique, which is derived from O.L.G. Cf. D. breken. to broider - to adorn with needlework. M. Eng. broder. From Fr. broder, which is derived from O.L.G., cf. D. boord. brokes - customs. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From D. bruke - gebrink (use, custom). bruges, brudges - name of a city in Flanders. Cf. bruges, satin. From D. Brugge. bruin - bear. In the M.D. poem and the prose work ‘Van den Vos Reinaerde’ the bear is called ‘bruin’ - brown because of its color. In William Caxton's Translation ‘Reynard the Fox,’ 1481, the word is spelled bruine, brunne, bruyn. bulk - the trunk of the body, heap, cargo. Cf. Shakespeare. From O.L.G. bulcke, cf. Kiliaen. bully - brother, darling, fine fellow, protector of a prostitute, ruffian. From M.D. boel - brother, darling. bumkin - a vessel. Cf. 1697 Dampier Voyages. From M.D. bomekÿn - a small vessel. bumkin - luff-bloc. A naval term. From D. bumkin, boomkin, boomke. bumpkin, Perhaps the same word as bumkin, boomke, a piece of wood; metaphorically a blockhead or bumkin, bommekyn. Cf. a country bumkin, Dryden's Juvenal Satires. bunting-crow - the hooded crow. From D. bonte-kraai, also thinking of bunting. buoy - a floating piece of wood fastened down. Properly a barrel fastened by a buoy. From D. boei, which is derived from Lat. boia or less probably from O. Fr. boye.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 106 burgher - a European male, no matter where resident, who is in the possession of the franchise and liable to all public duties. First found in the 16th century. Cf. burghership. D. burger. burghermaster. Burgomaster - a chief magistrate of a town. Cf. Hackluyt - Voyages. From D. burgemeester; burg - town. Cf. Eng. borough; Canterbury; boroughmaster. bus - a harquebus. Cf. arquebus. Buschbome - boxwood, box. From M.D. busboom, bosboom, boksboom. bush - a metal box. From D. bus - case. Cf. Eng. box. bushbuck - a small species of African antelope. From D. bosch-bok. bushman, Bosjesman - a tribe of aborigines near the Cape of Good Hope. From D. Boschjesman. buskin - a kind of legging. In Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton and also earlier. From D. borsekin - leather bag. According to some people cognate with D. broos - boot. Cf. Dees wil liefst met Thalie en lage broosjes wandelen. Die stapt met Melpomeen op hooge laarsen voort. (Smits.) Others say that buskin is derived from Fr. bouzequin, a secondary form of brodequin, broissequin - buskin. butterham - a slice of bread and butter. From D. boterham. byslabbed - befouled. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. beslabben - to make dirty. Cf. D. slabbetje. caboose - the cook's cabin on board ship. Sometimes spelt camboose. Dan. kabys. N.G. kabuse. Fr. cambuse. From D. kombius, kabuis. Used first in Eng. in the midst of the 18th century, as a

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 107 maritime term. Probably derived from the Celt. cab. Cf. Fr. cabane, Eng. cabin. cambric - kind of fine white linen. In 1530 the form: cameryk, later, camariek, cambric. From the name Cambray - Kamerÿk. Cf. Kamerdoek. cant - edge, corner, to cant - to incline. M. Eng. cante. 1603 Ben Jonson: in a cant. From D. kant. Cf. D. kantelen. D. kant is derived from Fr. Cant. Cf. Lat. cantus, and canthus. canty - Northern dialects: cheerful, active. Cf. John Anderson, my Jo, John

We clamb the hill thegither; And monie a canty day, John, We've had wi' ane anither. (BURNS)

From D. Kantig - sharp, prepared, ready, nice, fine. Cf. D. kant. cardel - a hogshead used in the Dutch whaling trade. Cf. Eng. quardeel. From D. kardeel, quardeel - a fourth of a barrel. cartow - a kind of cannon, a quartercannon, which threw a ball of a quarter of a hundred-weight. From D. Kartouw - a kind of cannon. catkin - an inflorescence consisting of rows of flowers. From D. katteken, katje (of willows, ete.). to cave in - to fall in. Used when men are digging, and a portion of a wall falls in. Lincolnshire dialect. To cave - to calve in. Cf. half-penny and the pronunciation of this word. From Flemish inkalven. Fries, kalven - to produce a calf. The word was introduced into England by English navvies. cavie - a hen-coop, a house for fowls. From D. kavie, kevie.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 108 choice - a selection. M. Eng. chois, choys, which took the place of M. Eng. kire, cure. From O. Fr. chois, which is derived from O.L.G. Cf. D. kiezen, keuze. to chuck - to strike gently, to toss. From Fr. choquer, which is derived from O.L.G. Cf. D. schokken. a clamp - a clasp. To clamp - to fasten tightly, to heap up. M. Eng. clamp. Cf. Bible, Exod. Ch. 36. From D. klamp - hook. Klamp is a secondary form of klam. Cf. D. klemmen. Clamp (dialectic) - a heap of stones, bricks, peat. This meaning only since 1596. From D. klamp. In Flemish people still talk about a ‘klamp’ stones. M.D. hoy te setten in clampen - hay in stacks. This ‘clamp’ is perhaps the same word, and also cognate with D. klemmen. clinker - hardened brick of pale colour made in Holland; a hard brick. Cf. 1641, Evelyn - Diary. From D. klinker, klinkaard, klinkerd - a stone which gives a sound (-D. klinkt). clope - a blow, a knock. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. clop - a blow. Cf. kloppen. Flemish - klop geven; den godsklop geven. to closh - to bowl; a kind of game. From M.D. closse, clos, ball. Cf. D. klos; klosbeitel. clove - a rocky cleft. From M.D. clove. D. kloof. clump - wooden sole, wooden shoe. From D. klomp. to clunter, a clunter - to run together; a lump. Mostly dial. Cheshire and Yorkshire. From D. klonter, klont. cluse - a monastic cell. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. cluse - kluis. cockle - a furnace of a hop kiln; a stove. From M.D. kakele, D. kachel.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 109 to cope - to buy. M. Eng. copen, cf. 1430, Lydgate, London Lickpenny Master, ‘What will you copen or buy?’ This word was introduced into Eng. by Flemish or Dutch merchants. M.D. copen, D. koopen. Cf. Eng. to chop; cheap. coper, cooper - a vessel fitted out to supply ardent spirits to the fishers in the . From D. kooper. corver - a kind of Dutch herring-boat. Cf. Eng. corved herrings. From M.D. corver. Cf. D. corf harinck. to cough - to make a violent effort of the lungs. Cf. 1340 Gawain and the Green Knight. From O.L.G. Fries. kuchen, cf. D. kuchen. coy - a place for entrapping ducks or other wild-fowl. Cf. coy-duck, cf. 1621 Burton Anatomy. From D. kovi, cf. Eng. decoy. coyte - a kind of beer. From M.D. coyte, kuyte-bier without hops. It was brewed at Brugge, Delft and Gouda. cracknel - a kind of biscuit of hollowed shape. Found in 1440 already, dial, Sussex, crackling. From Fr. craquelin, which is derived from D. krakeling. Cf. D. kraken. crants - a garland, wreath, a virgin crants. Cf. Shakespeare. From D. krants, krans. M.D. crans (of flowers); the symbol of virginity, cf. Kiliaen krants. The D. krans is derived from the H.G. kranz. Cf. Fr. chapeau de fleurs. crap - madder. From D. krap, meekrap. crap - the gallows. From D. krap - hook. cratch - a manger, a rack or crib. M. Eng. cracche, crecche. Cf. 1225 Ancren Rule; 1350 Will. Palerne; dialectic critch. From Fr. crèche (Provence crepcha) which is derived from O.L.G. Cf. D. krib.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 110 to cratch - to scratch, cf. 1362 Langland. From M.D. cratsen, D. krassen. cremp - to restrain, to contract. Only known in M. Eng. 1250, Owl and Nightingale. From M.D. crempen - to make, to contract. Cf. D. krimpen. cresset - a vessel of iron, made to hold grease or oil, or an iron basket to hold pitched rope, to be burnt for light; usually mounted on a pole. Cf. cresset-light, cf. 1393 Gower, Confessio. From O. Fr. craicet, cresset. Fr. crosset, creuset, formed from croiseul, which is derived from D. kruÿsel, a lantern. Cf. kiliaen, kruÿsel - kroes - cup, vessel. M.D. croese. Cf. D. smeltkroes, cf. Eng. crucible. crewel, crule - worsted yarn. Already found in 1494. Cf. crewel-work. Nowadays also called ‘Berlin wool.’ From D. krul. Though the sound of the D.. ‘u’ was different, the pronunciation could change, as soon as the word was written with one ‘1’ (-krule), instead of with two. to crimp - to cause to contract and become firm by cutting. From D. krimpen. to cruise - to traverse the sea. Cf. 1651, G. Carteret, Nicholas Papers, ‘Van Trump is with his fleete crusinge about Silly.’ Cf. a cruiser. From D. kruisen. Kruis from Fr. crois, which is derived from Lat. crucem. to curl - to twist into ringlets. Cf. M. Eng. to kurl; to croul; crulle - curly. Cf. Chaucer's Prologue. In Washington Irving's Sketchbook, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, is found cruller - a cake made of dough, containing eggs, butter, sugar, etc. D. krulkock. From O.L.G. Fries. krul. Cf. D. krul. to daker, daiker - to waver, stagger, to shake to and fro. First found in the 17th century. From M.D. dakeren (-to stagger).

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 111 damp, domp - an exhalation. Cf. 1480, Caxton. From M.D. damp, domp. A ‘domp’ more intense than a ‘damp.’ dapper - pretty, spruce, neat, active. Cf. 1529 Skelton, ‘As dapper as any crowe’; Spenser, 1579, The Shepherds' Calendar, ‘Dapper ditties’. October 1, 13. Cf. Eng. dapperism, dapperling, dapperly, dapperness. From M.D. dapper - quick, strong. The present meaning of brave did not exist in the M.D., but to express that quality vrome, bout, or coene was used. Cf. Goth, gadaben, to fit, to be proper. Gadobs - proper. Cf. D. deftig. das - a badger, rockbadger of the Cape. Cf. 1481 Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. das. dauw - a South African species of zebra. From South African D. dauw. deal - a thin plank of timber. M. Eng. dele. First found in 1402. From D. deel - plank. to deck - to cover, adorn. First found in the beginning of the 16th century. From D. dekken, for the A.S. form is theccan. deck - a ship's deck; a covering. From D. dek. Cf. two-decker, three-decker. With the meaning of second or third deck, the word is found in Eng. earlier than in D. decoy - a pond or pool out of which run narrow arms covered with network into which wild ducks or other fowl may be allured and then caught. 1642 Evelyn's Diary: ‘We arrived at Dort, passed by the decoys, where they catch innumerable quantities of fowls.’ Cf. coy; to decoy. From D. de kooi, a shorter form of de eendekooi (ducks' cage).

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 112 deese - dial. East-Sussex - a place where herrings are dried. Cf. to deese - to dry herrings. Cf. deesing-room, kipper-house. Cf. 1682, Collins Salt and Fishery. From M.D. deise - drying kiln, oast. Cf. Deeste, ast. Delf, Delft - a kind of earthen ware. Made ready in 1310 at Delft. dell - a deep hole, dale, vale. M. Eng. delle. From D. delle - valley. Cf. D. dal, Eng. dale. Derived very early. dell - a young girl, a wench. Cf. 1567 Harman, Caveat. From D. del, M.D. delle, dille. Cf. D. dillen - to chatter. D. dille - chatterer. derrick - a hangman, the gallows. From D. Dirk, the first name of a notorious hangman at Tyburn, about 1600. deutzia - a genus of shrubs, natives of China and Japan, cultivated for the beauty of their white flowers. Called in 1701 after J. Deutz of Amsterdam. to dewitt - to kill by mob or violence, to lynch. This verb was used frequently and is still to be found. Cf. 1689, Modest Enquiry, ‘It is a wonder the English nation have not in their fury de-witted some of those men.’ From the D. names Johan and Cornelius de Witt, statesmen and opponents of William III. Murdered by the people in 1672. dikegrave - a Dutch officer whose function it is to take charge of the dikes or sea-walls; an English officer (in Lincolnshire) who has charge of the drains and sea-banks. From D. dÿkgraaf. dobber - the float of an angler's fishing-line. From D. dobber. dock - a basin for ships. Cf. to dock. First found in the beginning of the 16th century. From D. dok.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 113 dock - the enclosure in a criminal court in which the prisoner is placed at his trial. From D. dok - cage. Cf. Kiliaen. dodkin, doydekin - an early name for the doit, a small Dutch coin. Found in Eng. already in 1415. From D. duit+kÿn. Cf. Eng. doit. dogger - a vessel for herring- and cod-fisheries. Already doger is found in (1491) The Paston Letters. M.D. dogge, dogger, ten dogge varen. Dogger-trawl, net, a vessel fishing by means of trawl-nets. The doggerbank was the meeting-place for the doggers. Probably from D. dogger. Doit - a small Dutch coin. Cf. Shakespeare's Tempest, 2nd Act. From D. duit, a small copper coin. M.D. doyt, duit. dois - a crash. Cf. 1535, Stewart, ‘With sic ane dois togidder that tha draif.’ From M.D. dosen. (Cf. gedossen.) dollar - a silver coin of varying value. From D. daler, daalder, which is derived from H.G. thaler - Joachin's Thaler, coin of silver from Joachimsthal in Bohemia, where the coins were made in 1519. to domineer - to play the master. Cf. Shakespeare. From O.D. 1573 in Plantÿn, domineeren - to be noisy, which is derived from O. Fr. dominer. Cf. Lat. dominus. dop - the cocoon of an insect; a small copper cup with a handle, into which a diamond is cemented to be held while being cut or polished. From D. dop. dope - any thick liquid used as an article of food, or as a lubricant. From D. doop. Cf. doopen. Eng. to dip.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 114 dopper - a Dutch Baptist or Anabaptist. From D. dooper. Cf. D. wederdoopers. dornick, darne - a kind of cloth named after the town Doornik in Belgium, and originally manufactured there. Already found in 1489. dorp - a Dutch village. Cf. 1503 Stanyhurst - Aeneis. From D. dorp. doxy - a disreputable sweetheart. Cf. 1530 Hicks-corner, Shakespeare. From O.L.G. Cf. O. Fries, dok - doll. Cf. Eng. duck; M.D. dockenspel. dredge - an iron frame with a net, bag; a drag-net for taking oysters; a dredger for clearing the beds of rivers. From O. Fr. drège, a fishing-net, and this from D. dreg. Cf. Eng. dredger, dragnet; D. dregge, dregnet. M.D. dregge - hook, dredging-net. In Murray ‘A New Eng. Dictionary’ it is declared to be a pure Eng. word. to drill - to pierce, to train soldiers. Cf. Ben Jonson alludes to it in his ‘Underwoods,’ 1637: ‘He that but saw thy curious Captain's drill ‘Would think no more of Vlushing or the Brill.’ From D. drillen, for the A.S. form is thirlan. Eng. thrill. Cf. D. drilboor - drill (borer). drossart - a , a high . Cf. 1678, London Gazette, ‘The drossarts of the country of Waes.’ From D. drossaard, drost-. drug - a medical ingredient. M. Eng. drogge, drugge - herb. Cf. Fr. droquiste, Eng. druggist. From O. Fr. drogue, which is derived from D. droog. D. drogen - dried herbs. Cf. Eng. drogery - a drying place; droger - a boat to dry herring. Cf. Fr. droguer. drugget - a coarse woolen cloth, to make rugs of. From O.F. droguet. Cf. Fr. drogue, which is derived from D. droog. Cf. Eng. drug.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 115 drumbler - a fast vessel, also a piratical ship of war. Cf. 1598 Hackluyt, Voyages. From D. drommelaar, drommeler - a kind of vessel. Cf. O. Fr. , Eng. dromond. duck, ducks - light canvas, trousers of this material. A maritime term of later times. From D. doek. H.G. tuch. duffel - a kind of coarse woolen cloth. Also called: shag of trucking cloth, cf. And let it be a duffil gray. Wordsworth. Alice Fell. From D. duffel - a kind of cloth named after the village Duffel, between and Lier. Cf. D. duffelsche jas. duiker - a small South African antelope. So called from its habit of plunging through the bushes when pursued. From D. duiker. dwile (Norfolk dialect) - a coarse towel or napkin, a mop. From D. dwiel. M.D. dwale, dwele. Cf. Eng. towel. easel - a support, a wooden frame for pictures while being painted. From D. ezel. ees - food, bait. M. Eng. es, A.S. aes. From M.D. aes - food. D. aas. eland - a South African antelope. From D. eland, which is derived from Slav. elger - an eelspear. Cf. Eng. algere. From M.D. elger. D. aalgeer - a large spear to catch eel. D. aalgeer, consists of aal (-eel) and geer. Geer is an old name for D. speer (-spear). Cf. A.S. gâr. M.D. gheer. elzevir - a book printed by one of the Elzeviers; the style of type used by those printers. Cf. Elzevir type. From D. Elzevir - name of a family of printers at Amsterdam, The Hague, Leyden and Utrecht 1592-1680, famous because of their editions of the classics.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 116

Erasmian - pertaining to, or after the manner of Erasmus. A follower of Erasmus. From D. Erasmus, the famous Humanist 1466-1536. erf - (in South Africa) - A garden plot. From D. erf. excise - a duty or tax. Cf. 1596 Spenser's State of . From M.D. excÿs. Cf. 1406 Assay-books of the town of Leyden. Also M.D. accys and this from O. Fr. accens, cf. Fr. accise, D. cÿns, Lat. census. faldore - a trap-door, a falldoor. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. valdoer - falldoor. farrow - a cow that is not with calf. From M.D. verwekoe, varwekoe, a cow that does not calve any more. filibuster - a pirate, freebooter. From Sp. filibustero, which is the Spanish pronunciation of the Eng. word freebooter, and this is derived from D. vrÿbuiter, cf. Eng. freeboater, . to filter - to strain liquors. From O. Fr. filtrer, and this from Lat. filtrum and this from O.L.G. cf. D. filtreeren, vilt. to fineer - to collect money. Cf. Goldsmith, Essays. From M.D. finieren, fÿneren - to collect money. fimble - the male plant of hemp; fimble hemp. From M.D. fimele, a kind of hemp. Originally an meaning female. Fr. femelle. Eng. female. firkin - the fourth part of a barrel. M. Eng. ferdekyn 1423. From D. vierdevat cf. verrel. Perhaps fir - four and kin, diminutive cf. D. kilderkin. fitchet, fitchew - a polecat. A form derived from O. Fr. fissel, (fissiaulx), later fissan. From older D. fisse, visse - a polecat. Cf. Killaen. Cf. D. vies, veest. Eng. foist. flake - a pool, marsh. Cf. Linschoten, Voyages. From D. vlak. Cf. Kiliaen.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 117 flanders - D. Vlaanderen. Used as an adjective. Cf. Flanders brick, tile, flax, lace. flandrican, Flanderkin. From Flanderenkin - an inhabitant of Flanders; Flemish. fleming - a native or inhabitant of Flanders; a Fleming vessel. 1430 Lydgate. From M.D. Vlaming. flemish - of or belonging to Flanders; the Flemish language. From M.D. Vlaemisch. D. Vlaamsch, Cf. Eng. a Flemish ell, rider, a Flemish account. Cf. a Flemish stitch, point, fake, coil, bond, brick. to flemish - to coil or lay up a rope in a Flemish coil; of a hound to make a quivering movement with the tail and body. 1857. Ch. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, 18 ch. 1832 Marryat. From M.D. vlaemisch, D. vlaamsch. flittermouse - a bat. 1547. Boorde. Brev. Health. We also find it a few times in Ben Jonson. From D. vledermuis. Cf. D. fladderen, and M.D. flederen. to flounder - to flounce about. Cf. Beaumont and Fletcher. Nasalied form from L.L.G. Cf. D. flodderen. flushing - a kind of rough woolen cloth, so called from the place Flushing. 1833 Marryat. P. Simple. D. Vlissingen. flushinger - a Flushing vessel or sailor. From D. Vlissingen. flyboat - one of the small boats used on the Vlie, afterwards applied in ridicule to the vessels used against the Spaniards by the Sea-Beggars 1572; a fast ship, a flat-bottomed boat. From D. vlieboot. fogger - a man who feeds and attends to cattle. Berkshire dialect. From D. fokker.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 118 fob - a pocket for a watch. Cf. Butler's Hudibras. Cf. D. fob - to cheat. From O.L.G. Cf. Bremen Wörterbuch fuppe. fop - a coxcomb, dandy. Cf. foppery, fopling. Frequently found in Shakespeare. M. Eng. foppe. From D. foppen - to deceive. Cf. D. foppert, fopperÿ. Perhaps a Fries. word. to formake - to make over again, to repair. Cf. 1483. Caxton, Vocal. From D. vermaken. to forsling - to swallow down. Cf. 1481. Caxton, Reynard, where the past ‘verslongen’ is found, which is derived from M.D. ‘verlonden.’ to forslinger - to beat, to belabour. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. verslingeren. forwything - reproach. Cf. Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. verwÿt. to fother - to cover a sail with oakum; to stop a leak. Maritime term, first used in the 18th century. From D. voederen, voeren. foy - a parting entertainment, cup of liquor, etc., given by or to one setting out on a journey; a feast. From M.D. foye. This M.D. word is derived from the Fr. voie, voye. Lat. via. Cf. Fr. voyage. Cf. D. fooi. The Eng. word fee has nothing to do with the D. fooi; it is one in origin with D. vee. freebooter - a rover, pirate. Cf. Sidney State Papers, ‘The freebutters of Flushenge.’ From D. vrÿbuiter. Etymology of the people. From Fr. flibustier, a derivation from Span, flibote, derived from D. vlieboot. Cf. Eng. flyboat. fraught - freight, hire of a vessel for the transport of goods. Cf. 1483 Caxton, Golden Legends. From D. vracht.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 119 frokin - a Dutch woman, a child. Cf. 1603 Dekker. From D. vronwken. frolic - sportive, gay, merry. Cf. frolicsome, to frolic. Cf. Gascoigne ‘Fruites of Warre.’ A frolicke favour. From D. vroolÿk. M.D. vrs. H.G. fröhlich, froh. frow - a woman, a Dutch woman. Cr. 1477. Paston, Letters. From D. vronw. to fumble - to grope about. Cf. Sir Th. More, False fumbling heretikes. Fumble - fummle. From D. fommelen. Cf. Swed. famla, to grope. funk, fonk - spark. Cf. 1330. R. Brunne. From M.D. vonke. D. vonk. Origin uncertain. funk - cowering fear, a state of terror (slang). From D. fonck. Cf. Kiliaen, and Lye in Junius Etymologicum. furlough - leave of absence. From D. verlof, vorlof. M.D. orlof. Cf. H.G. erlauben. In Sw. förlof, which word has about the same pronunciation as the Eng. gas - an aeriform fluid. Cf. gaseous, gasometer. From D. gas, an artificial word. Name given by the chemist, J.B. van Helmont, about 1640, to the aeriform fluids, to which he first directed attention. The name was made by him and was taken by other languages. The Greek word chaos was in his mind. Cf. Van Helmont, Ortus Medicinae 1640. gaffle - a steel lever for bending the crossbow; a spur for fighting cocks. Cf. 1497. Naval accidents. From D. gaffel - a two-pronged fork, used for various purposes. gaylor - a dealer in earthenware. From D. gleyer, gleier, potter.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 120 garboard - the first range of planks laid upon a ship's bottom. Cf. 1606 Captain Smith. From D. gaarboord, gaderboord. garnel - a species of shrimp. From D. garnaal. geck - a fool, one who is derided, an expression of scorn. Cf. to geck - to mock. Cf. 1500 Dunbar. From O.L.G. geck, D. gek. geitje - a venomous African lizard. South African D. geitje. gemsbok - a South African antelope. South African. From D. gemsbok, Cf. D. springbok, steinbok. geneva - a spirit distilled from grain. and flavoured with the juice of juniper berries. From D. genever, jenever. Cf. Eng. gin. gherkin - a small cucumber. Cf. 1661 Pepys Diary. From D. agurk, augurk, agurkje and this derived from Slav. The ‘h’ is put into the Eng. word, while the ‘a’ is apocopated. The ending (k)in is diminutive. gimp - silk or cotton twist with a cord or wire running through it; a fishing line. Cf. 1664. J. Wilson. From D. gimp, passement. to glim - to shine, to gleam. Cf. 1481 Caxton, Reynard. ‘His eyen glymmed as a fyre.’ D. glimmen. golf - the name of a game. Already known in England in 1457. Probably from D. kolf. M.D. colve. Cf. D. kolfbaan. Kolven - a game played with cudgels (-kolven) and balls. Gomarist - a follower of Francis Gomar 1563-1641, who zealously defended Orthodox Calvinism in opposition to the doctrines of Arminius. From D. Franciscus Gomarus, Professor at Leyden, who defended the doctrine of predestination against Arminius.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 121 graff, graft - a trench, a ditch, a canal. Cf. 1641 Evelyn Diary. From D. graft, gracht. grate - the backbone of a fish. Cf. 1481. Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. graet. great-father - grand-father. Cf. 1484, Caxton, Aesop. And the mule answered: my grete father was a horse. From D. grotvader. to grim - to be angry, to look fierce. Cf. 1481. Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. grimmen. gripe - the piece of timber terminating the keel at the forward extremity. Cf. 1599. Hakluyt's Voyages. Maritime term. From D. greep. groat - a coin worth 4 pence. M. Eng. grote 1351. From O.L.G. grote. 1351. From O.L.G. grote, a coin of Bremen. Cf. D. groot, of varying value. M.D. groot, grote. Originally the adj. groot (-large), used as substantive with the meaning thick, a thick (groote) coin. Cf. Eng. groatsworth. groll - a foolish person. Cf. Bastwick Litany, 1637. Cf. Eng. grollery, grollish. From D. grol - foolish prattle. Cf. D. grollenmaker. Origin uncertain. Perhaps grol has been the name of some doctor or magician, but see: Verdam, Murray, Vocabulary of the D. Language, Franck. groop - gutter in a stable, ditch, groove. Northamptonshire dialect. From M.D. groep - gutter. Cf. Eng. grip. groove - a furrow, channel cut in wood, iron or stone. Already in 1400. Cf. Alexander. In fig. meaning humdrum way, cf. to groove; to engroone upon (Tennyson). From D. groef, M.D. groeve - groove in a side of a board. The making of these ‘groven’ is called ‘ploegen.’ Cf. D. ploegschaaf, groefschaaf; cf. graven.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 122 groundsop - sediment, dregs. Cf. 1440, 1530. Grounde soppe in lycoure. From D. grondsop. to growl - impersonal verb. It growls me - I have a feeling of terror or horror. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard the Fox. From M.D. growelen; mi gruwelt seer. Cf. D. gruwen. grozing-iron - a tool in the form of nippers formerly used by glaziers in cutting glass. From D. gruisÿzer. Cf. Eng. grozier. gruel - liquid food. M. Eng. gruel, and this from O.L.G. Cf. D. grut, gort. gruff - coarse, rough, surly. Already found in 1533. From M.D. grof. D. grof - heavy, clumsy. Origin uncertain. grundy - groundling. Cf. 1570. Foxe. He was a short grundy and of little stature. From D. grontly, grundje - small fish. grÿsbok - a small grey South African antelope. From D. grÿsbok (South African). guelder-ros, gueldres-rose - a species of Viburnum, bearing large white ball-shaped flowers. So named from some resemblance of the flower to a white rose. Gueldres is the Fr. spelling of the name of the province . D. Gildersche roos (Opulus). This flower is found wild in Holland. guile - deceit. M. Eng. gile, gyle. From O. Fr. guile and this from O.L.G. Cf. Eng. wile. Origin uncertain. guilder - a Dutch coin. Cf. 1483, Caxton, Dialogues. A changed form of D. gulden. to gybe - to swing from one side of the vessel to the other; to cause to swing; to alter its course. From D. gÿpen. Cf. D. met een gyp - with a swing. The ‘gÿp’ is not used any more. The gaff takes its place.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 123 gyle - wort in process of fermentation. Cf. Eng. gyle-fat; gyle-ker. From D. gÿl, geil - yeast (in the brewery). Cf. gÿlen. Origin uncertain. hackbut - a kind of gun. Cf. Eng. hackbus, harquebus, bowse, bus, arquebus. From Fr. haquebute, from D. haakbus, so called after the hook at the end of the barrel. M.D. haecbusse - small cannon. hamlet - a small village. M. Eng. hamelet. From O. Fr. hamel et. Fr. hameau, and this from O.L.G. Cf. D. heem, heim, Eng. home. hankspike - wooden bar, used as a lever, chiefly on board ship. From D. handspaak. hans-in-kelder - an unborn child. Cf. 1635, Brome, Sparagus Garden, ‘Come here's a health to the hans in kelder.’ Is frequently found in Eng. of the 17th century. From D. Hansje in de kelder. Kelder, kildelap. Cf. de Dortsche Kil. Goth. kilthei. harstrang, horestrong - hog's fennel. Cf. 1562. Turner, Herbal. ‘Peucedanum is named in Dutch Har Strang. Cf. M.D. harn - urine. H.G. harn. hartebeest - a kind of antelope. South African. from D. hert+beest. to hawk - to carry about for sale. Formed from the Eng. substantive hawker. Cf. Eng. hawker. hawker - a kind of pedlar who travels about selling goods with a horse and cart. From O.L.G. hoker. Cf. D. heuker, hukker. Eng. huckster. haye - a shark. Cf. Purchas. 1614. Cf. Eng. hay-fish. From D. haai. heemraden - burghers appointed by the government to act as assessors in the district courts of Justice. South African from D. heemraad.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 124 herring-buss - a two or three masted vessel used in the herring-fishery. From D. haringbuis. Cf. Eng. bouse. hobby - a small species of falcon. From O. Fr. hob. Cf. O. Fr. hober - to move and therefore so called after its movements. From O.L.G. Cf. D. hobbelen. hogen mogen, hogan mogan - D. hoogmogendhedem, the High and Mighty, the Dutch, strong, mighty, a coward. Was frequently used in the 17th century. hoiden, hoyden - a romping girl. Cf. 1593. Nashe. With older writers in Eng. mostly in the meaning: uncivilized boor. From M.D. heyden, heiden, man who lives on the heath (D. heide). to hoist, to hoise - to heave, to raise tackle. Cf. Shakespeare. From D. hÿschen, hÿssen. Already derived early. Holland - Dutch linen from the name of the country Holland. Cf. A shert of feyn Holland. Coventry Mysteries, 1502. A pece (of) Holland or any other lynnen cloth. Arnold's Chronicle. Cf. a brown Holland. Cf. Eng. a Hollander. Hollands - gin made in Holland. Cf. British Hollands - gin distilled in England. holliglass - a corruption of howleglass, owliglasse, owl glass - a buffoor. From D. Uilenspiegel. Uillenspiegel, which work was translated into Eng. about 1550. holster - a leathern case for a pistol. A word of later times. From D. holster. Origin uncertain. hop or hoppe - a plant introduced from the Netherlands into England about 1500 and used in brewing. Cf. hopvine, hopgarden. From D. hop. Origin uncertain.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 125 hope - a troop. Only in the phrase ‘forlorn hope.’ Cf. 1572. Gascoigne. Also in Sir Fr. Vere. The battle of Nieuport. From D. een verloren hoop - a troop soldiers. Cf. Kiliaen. hottentot - one of the aborigines who formerly inhabited the Cape of Good Hope. The Dutchmen gave this name first to those natives because of their singular language which made people think that they were stammering. Cf. Hot en tot. Cf. Dapper. Beschrÿvingh der Afrikaanrehe Gewesten, 1670. hoy - a kind of sloop. Cf. 1495. Paston Letters. An hoy of Dorderyght. Gascoigne, Fruits of War. M.D. hoede, hode, hoei, heude. Flem. huy - yacht, freight-ship. Origin unknown. hoy - interjection, stop! When one ship hails another, the words are: What ship, hoy? - stop and tell the name of your ship. A maritime term. From D. huy! an interjection. Cf. ahoy. hoarding, hoard - a fence inclosing a house while builders are at work. From O. Fr. hourde, and this from D. horde, M.D. gorde. huckster - a pedler, a retailer, hawker, venter, kramer. Cf. hawker, to huck, hucker, huckle. Can be found already in 1205 in Ormulum under the form: huccster. From M.D. hoeker - retailer of groceries. D. dial heuker, hukker - grocer. Cf. hukken, huiken - somebody who is bent down under his burden or cognated with ‘hoek’ - in the meaning of store. Origin uncertain. hull - the body of a ship. Cf. Minot Political Poems, ‘The gudes that thai robbed in holl gan thai it hide.’ To hull - floating around of a ship with lowered sails. Cf. Eng. hold. From D. hol, het hol (hold) of a ship. Eng. hull - shell. Cf. M.D. hulle - covering.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 126 to hustle, to hutstle - to toss, to push about, to jostle in a crowd. From D. hutselen, frequently of to hotsen. Cf. Eng. hustle-cap. M.D. hutssecruysen. hunk - the goal, home in a game. From D. honk. Cf. D. van honk gaan; honken - to be on the resting-place, in playing at tag. Fries. honck-home. Huyghenian - of or pertaining to Christian Huygens, a Dutch mathematician and astronomer, 1629-1695. to inspan - to yoke oxen, horses in a team to a vehicle. From South African inspan. D. inspannen. Cf. to outspan. isinglass - a glutinous substance made from a fish. Probably used as gelatine, and hence the corruption of the word by thinking of ice and the glassy appearance. From D. huizenblas, M.D. huusblase, H.G. hausenblas, and, according to some dictionaries, also huisblad, steurblaas. M.D. huut - a kind of sturgeon. Glue made of the sturgeon's bladder. jagger - a sailing vessel which followed a fishing fleet in order to bring the fish from the busses. From D. haringjager. jangle - to sound discordantly, to quarrel. M. Eng. janglen. From O. Fr. jangler, and this from O.L.G. Cf. M.D. jangelen, D. jengelen, janken. kails, keils, kayles - nine-pins. Cf. M. Eng. kayles; Ben Jonson, Chloridia. From M.D. kegel, keyl. Cf. keylbaan. D. kegel. kakkerlak - a cockroach, an albino. From D. kakkerlak - a beetle, a white native of . to keek - to peep, glance. From D. kÿken. M.D. kiken. keel - a flat bottomed vessel, a lighter. From M.D. kiel - a large seaship.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 127 to keelhaul - to haul a person under the keel of a ship. From D. kielhalen, which was abolished in 1853. keest - sap, marrow, viguor. From D. keest - marrow, the best part. kelder - the womb. Cf. Hans-in-kelder. kelson, keelson - a line of timber placed along the floortimbers of a ship. From M.D. colswÿn. D. kolzwÿn, kolsem, a thick beam which is put on the inside along the keel to make it stronger. kermis - a fair or . Cf. Harrison 1577. From D. kermis. kilderkin - liquid measure of 18 gallon. From M.D. kindekÿn, kinnekÿn. Already found in Eng. in 1390. Cf. Eng. a kilderkÿn of ale. In Dryden: a kilderken of wit. The word is derived from Lat. quinbale - one-fifth of the measure unit, a derivation from Lat. quinque. Cf. Firkin. kink - a twist in a rope. First used in Eng. in the 17th century. Cf. D. konkel. M.D. conkel, een kink in den kabel. From D. kink - twist, from the same root as ‘konkel.’ Cf. D. konkelen. kit - a vessel of various kinds, a milk-pail, tub, outfit - de ‘heele rommel.’ Cf. 1375. Barbour Bruce. M.D. kitte, kit - pitcher. Cf. D. kit, drinking-vessel, cup. M.D. cete, barn, shed. Cf. kot, keet, soutkeet. klipspringer - a small antelope. From South African, D. klipspringer. kloof - a deep narrow valley; a ravine. South African. D. kloof. knapsack - a provision-bag, case for necessaries used by travellers, or soldiers. Cf. Eng. snapsack. Cf. Drayton, The ' War, 1603. And each one fills his knapsack or his scrip. From D. knapzak, satchel, bag; D. knappen - to eat. Cf. D. knabbelen.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 128 knicker - a marble. From D. knikker. knorhan - a South African bustard. From D. knorhaan. knuckle - the projecting joint of the fingers. M. Eng. knokel. From M.D. cnoke, cnokel. knure, knur - a swelling, a knot in wood. M. Eng. knorre. From O.L.G. Fries, knure. Cf. D. knor - brush. M.D. cnorre. Cf. D. knoest, knorf. koff - clumsy sailing-vessel with two masts. From D. kof. kopje, koppie - a small hill. South African. From D. kopje. kraal - a village of Hottentots, or other central African natives. From D. kraal. krantz - a summit, a wall of rocks. From D. krans - kroon (kruin ) - crown. kreng - the carcass of a whale from which the blubber has been removed. From D. kreng, and this from O. Fr. caroigne. Cf. Lat. caro - flesh. lack - want, failure. M. Eng. lac, laccen. Cf. Eng. to lack. From O.L.G. Fries. lak. Cf. D. lak, laster. Cf. laken (denominative). lager - an enclosure for protective purposes, such as a circular wall of stone, or a number of wagons lashed together. South African. From D. lager. Cf. leger. lake - fine linen. Cf. Chaucer's Sir Thopas. From M.D. laken, D. laken. lampas, hampors - a kind of glassy crape. From M.D. lampers - a transparent material. Is found in M. Eng. already in 1390 in the form of lawmpas. Origin uncertain. lampoon - a personal satire. From Fr. lampon - drinking-song. Fr. lamper - to sing, and this

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 129 from O.L.G. Cf. Fr. lapper - to lick up and also Fr. lampons - let us drink, which interjection is frequently found in drinking songs. - a stipendary magistrate, who administers justice and receives the revenue of a district. South African. From D. landdrost. landgood - a landed estate. From D. landgoed. landgrave - a count of a province. Cf. landgravine. From D. landgraaf. landloper - a vagabond. From D. landlooper. landscape - the aspect of a country. Cf. A landscape painter, landscape gardening. The former spelling in Eng. was landskip. It was derived from the D. in the 17th century. From D. landschap. lash - a thin flexible part of a whip, a stripe. M. Eng. lasshe. Cf. Chaucer. From O.L.G. laske. Cf. Eng. to lash. to lash - to fasten firmly together. Maritime term. From D. lasch - strip, piece. Cf. D. lasschen, inlasschen. Origin uncertain. to laveer - to beat to windward. Cf. 1595 Linschoten, translated by W. Philips. From D. laveeren. M.D. loveren. Cf. Fr. louvoyer, D. loef. layman - a lay-figure. From D. leeman, ledeman - ledepop (pop-doll), or doll with movable arms, legs, etc., for painters. lay-figure - layman. Formed by analogy of the work: layman. leaguer - a camp. Cf. Shakespeare. From D. leger. Cf. to beleaguer. leak - a hole or fissure in a vessel. A maritime term, first found in Eng. in 1407. From D. lek. ledger - a book in which a summary of accounts is preserved, formerly called a ledgerbook. From

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 130

D. legger (ligger), a book which is always lying ready. lighter - a boat for unloading ships. Cf. lighterman. From D. lichter. link - a torch. Corruption of lint. From D. lont. Cf. Eng. linstock. linstock, lintstock - a stick to hold a lighted match. From D. lontstok. Cf. Eng. link. litmus - a kind of dye. Cf. litmose blew. From D. lakmoes. M.D. lekmoes - reddish blue dye. Origin uncertain. to loiter - to delay, to linger. M. Eng. loitren. Cf. lout - clown. Perhaps: to stoop like a lout. Cf. Spenser: he humbly loited. The idea probably has been to bow humbly like a lout, to steal, to delay. From D. leuteren. M.D. loteren - to stagger, to go to and fro. Cf. M.D. lutsen. The later meaning of delay, linger, is not found in M.D. Leuteren is a frequent of a not yet found verb, loten. A. S. lutan - to bow. to loll - to lounge about lazily. M. Eng. lollen. From O.L.G. Cf. D. lollen - to hum, to sing, to talk, to trifle, to be lazy. Cf. lollepot - fire-pot around which people loll. Cf. Eng. to lull; lollard. lollard - a name given to the followers of Wyclif. From M.D. lollaerd - brother of mercy, so called after their quiet singing and praying, called by the people in Holland lolbroeder, lollaard. Many of them were free-thinkers and therefore lollard got the meaning of free-thinker, heretic. Cf. D. lollen. Eng. to lull. loon, lown - a base fellow. Cf. Shakespeare. From O.L.G. Fries. lön. Cf. D. loen - lout, stupid, slow.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 131 to lop - to cut branches off trees. Cf. Shakespeare. Already derived early. From D. lubben; past participle, gelubt - to cut, to make powerless. luck - fortune, chance. From O.L.G. Fries, lück. Cf. D. geluk. to luff, to loof - to turn a ship towards the wind. M.D. loeveren, loveren, loeveeren. The Eng. verb is perhaps derived from M. Eng. lof - a piece of wood, an oar. H.G. laffe. In Kiliaen loeve - rowing-pin. In the 16th century it was derived from the D. and taken into Eng. again. The origin is still uncertain. Cf. luff-tackle; aloof. mangle - a roller for smoothing linen. Cf. Eng. to mangle. From D. mangel. M.D. mange, and this from Lat. manganum. manikan, manakin - a little man, a dwarf. Cf. Shakespeare. From D. manneken, mannetje. margrave - a marquis, a lord of the marches. Cf. ‘The Maregrave of Bruges,’ in the translation of Sir Th. More's Utopia, 1551. From D. markgraaf. Cf. Eng. margravine. marish - a marsh. D. moeras. From O. Fr. maress, marez, and this from O.L.G. marline - a small cord used for binding large ropes, to protect them. Cf. Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: ‘Some the galled ropes with dauby marling bind.’ From D. marlÿn, marling, a compound with the root of D. marren - to fasten. Cf. Eng. to mar. Goth. marzjan. mazer - a drinking-bowl. M. Eng. maser. Cf. D. maser. Kiliaen. Cf. Eng. maple, measles. From O.L.G. measles - contagious fever accompanied by small red spots on the skin. M. Eng. maseles. From D. mazelen, mazel, a diminutive of maas - spot.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 132 mercatte - an ape. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. mercatte, a sort of ape. minikin - a little darling. Cf. Shakespeare. From D. minnekÿn, friend, loved. Cf. D. mÿne eerste liefde. Fr. amour. minx - a pert, a wanton woman, or a pet dog. Cf. Shakespeare. A corruption from Fries. minske. Cf. D. minneken, my dearest. mite - a very small portion, a small coin. Cf. Langland and Shakespeare. From M.D. mite - trifle, small coin. Cf. D. mÿt, M.D. mite. Cf. mÿt - insect. mob - a woman's nightcap. Cf. mobcap. From D. mopmuts - nightcap. to moor - to fasten a ship by cable and anchor. Cf. mooring, marline. From D. meren - to fasten. Lat. mora - delay. Cf. D. meertouw, meering, meerpaal. Perhaps moerscrew, a contraction of moeder. Cf. vastmoeren, has had some influence in deriving the Eng. word from the D. mop - a grimace, to grimace. Cf. Shakespeare. From D. mop - grimace. Cf. Eng. to mope. to mope - to be dull or dispirited. Cf. mopish. Cf. Eng. mop. From D. mop, moppen. Cf. D. mopperen. morass - a swamp, bog. From D. moeras. The M.D. marasch, M. Eng. mareis, Eng. marish are taken from the Fr. marais. The younger forms of the Germanic languages D. maeras, H.G. morast, originated by thinking of maer. The Eng. morass is probably derived from D. moeras. mow - a grimace (Cf. Shakespeare). From Fr. moue, and this from M.D. mouwe - a thick lip. mud - mire. M. Eng. mud. From O.L.G. mudder. Cf. D. modder.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 133 to muddle - to confuse. A frequentative of Eng. mud; to confuse. From O.L.G. Fries. muddelen. Cf. Eng. to mud. muffle - to cover up warmly. From O. Fr. mofle, moufle, and this from O.L.G. Cf. D. mof, moffel. mummer - a masker, a buffoon. From O. Fr. mommeur, and this from D. mommer, mom. Cf. D. vermommen, mommelen. Cf. Eng. mummery, D. mommerÿ. to mump - to mumble, to whine, to sulk, to beg. Cf. a mumper - beggar. Cf. Beaumont and Fletcher, Pedro. From D. mompelen, mommelen - to growl, to hum. This is a frequentative of mommen, sich vermommen, to speak within one's teeth, to make oneself irrecognisable. Cf. mom-mask. Cf. Eng. mumps. mumps - a swelling of the glands of the neck. The disease renders speaking and eating difficult and gives the patient the appearance of being sulky. Derived from Mump. In D. they call it bof. Cf. Eng. mump. mute - to dung, used of birds. From O. Fr. mutir, esmeltir, and this from O.L.G. Cf. D. smelten. nag - a small horse. M. Eng. nagge. From O.L.G. Cf. D. negghe in Kiliaen. Cf. Eng. to neigh. nick - a small notch. From O.L.G. Cf. Eng. to notch. notch, nock - an indentation. M. Eng. nokke. Cf. to notch. From O.L.G. Cf. D. nocke - notch in an arrow to put it on the string. Kiliaen. Cf. Eng. nick. to ogle - to look at sideways, to glance at. A verb found since the latter part of the 17th century. From D. oogelen. Tho the frequentative oogelen, from oogen, is not found in D., it may have

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 134 existed formerly. (The use of it by Beets is an independent case.) It is found in Meyer's Woordenschat, oogeler. oom - uncle. South African. From D. oom. orlop - a deck of a ship. Maritime term. From D. overlope - overloop. ort, orts - leaving, morsel left at a meal. From O.L.G. Fries. ort. Cf. D. orte, oorte - leaving. to outspan - to unharness; Cf. een outspan - a place in the field where one unharnesses. Cf. to inspan. South African. From D. nitspannen. owlglass - Cf. Holliglass. pad - a thief on the high road. Cf. footpad, padnag. Cf. Massinger. A new way to pay old debts. From D. pad - road, path. to pamper - to glut. From O.L.G. slamp-ampen. Cf. D. pampelen, slamp-ampen. patch - a paltry fellow. Cf. Shakespeare. From O.L.G. Cf. Eng. patch. The meaning was a clown, so called after his patched or motley coat. patch - a piece sewn on a garment. Cf. to patch. M. Eng. pacche. Cf. to stretch and D. strekken. A syncopized form of D. plak. paw - the foot of a beast of prey. From O. Fr. poe, and this from O.L.G. Cf. D. poot. to peer - to pry. M. Eng. piren. Cf. Shakespeare. From O.L.G. piren. pink - a kind of boat, a fishing-boat. From D. pink - fishing boat. The origin is uncertain. pitchyard - a signal, a flag. A kind of commando-flag, used as signal to get on board. From D. pitsjaar, derived from Malay bitjara - counsel. First used as the signal of an admiral's ship, when the admiral wanted to hold a council.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 135 placard - a bill stuck up as an advertisement. From Fr. placard, Cf. plaquer, and this from D. plakken. plash - a puddle. M. Eng. plasche. From O.L.G. Fries. plasse. Cf. D. plas. plump - full, round, fleshy. M. Eng. plomp - rude, clownish. Cf. Caxton, Reynard the Fox. From D. plomp - rude, clownish. M.D. plomp - shapeless, blunt. to pry - to peer, gaze. M. Eng. pryen. The same word, through , as to peer. Cf. Eng. to peer. quacksalver - a quack who puffs up his salves or ointments. From D. kwakzalver. Cf. kwaken, kwakken. quail - a migratory bird. M. Eng. quaille. From O. Fr. quaille. From Lat. quaquila, and this from L.G. Cf. D. kwakkel, kwartel, wachtel. queer - strange, odd. From O.L.G. queer, quere. quyteskylle - to acquit of. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. quiteschelden. D. kwÿtschelden. Cf. Eng. to scold. rabbit - a small quadruped. From D. robbe. The Eng. word is cony. Cf. dial. Fr. robette, rabotte. rabble - a noisy crowd, mob. M. Eng. rablen - to speak confusedly. From O.L.G. Fries. rabbeln. Cf. D. rabbelen. rail - a bar of timber, of iron. From O.L.G. Cf. D. regel, richel. to rant - to use violent language. Cf. Shakespeare. From M.D. ranten - to speak, to rage. Origin uncertain. to ravel - to untwist, to unweave. Cf. to unravel, Cf. Shakespeare. From D. rafelen. Already derived early. Origin unknown.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 136 reef - a portion of a sail that can be drawn close together. Cf. In Surrey: ryft. From D. reef - a small portion of a sail. Cognated with rib. reef - a ridge of rocks. From D. rib, of the verb rÿven, and therefore: a split mass of rocks. rider - a Dutch coin, worth about 24 shillings. From D. rÿder - gold coin, worth about $5.80. to reeve - to pass the end of a rope through a hole or ring. A maritime term. From D. reven - to fasten the sails. Cf. Eng. reef. rix-dollar - the name of a coin. Cf. Evelyn's Diary, 1641. From D. rÿkdaalder. Cf. Eng. dollar. rover - a pirate, a wanderer. M. Eng. rover, rovare. Cf. to rove - to wander. From D. roover, rooven. Cf. Eng. to bereave. to ruffle - to be noisy, a ruffle. From D. roffelen - frequentative of roffen - to carry something through by force. rummer - a sort of drinking glass. Cf. Dryden. From D. roemer. to rutsele - dial, to slide. From D. rutsen, rutselen - to slide. Cf. Van den Vos Reinaerde. scalp - the skin of the head. M. Eng. scalp. From O.L.G. Cf. D. schelp. scoff - a taunt. M. Eng. scof. From O.L.G. Fries. skoff. D. schoppen. Cf. Eng. to scoff. to scold - to rail at. From O.L.G. Fries. schelden. Cf. D. schold, schelden. scorbutic - pertaining to or afflicted with scurvy. From Lat. scorbutus, and this from L.G. schorbock. Cf. D. scheurbuik. selvage, selvedge - a border of cloth. From D. selvegge, D. zelfkant. M.D. egge - sharp edge. Eng. edge. In Groningen people still call zelfkant, zelfegge. So called to distinguish it from the real border.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 137 to sheer - to deviate from one's course. A naval expression. From D. scheren, wegscheren. Cf. D. scheerje weg. Cf. Eng. sheer off. shock - a pile of sheaves of corn. From O.L.G. schock. Cf. D. schok - sixty. shock - a violent shake. M. Eng. schokken. From D. schok, schokken. Cf. Fr. choquer. to shudder - to tremble with fear of horror. From O.L.G. Fries. schuddern. Cf. D. schudden. skate, scate - a frame of wood or iron with a steel ridge, beneath it, for sliding on ice. The singular ought to be skates. People thought the ‘s’ was the ending of the plural. Cf. Eng. pea, cherry. From D. schaats. Origin uncertain. sketch - a rough draught, an outline. Cf. Dryden. From D. schets, and this from Italian schizzo. skew - oblique, wry. Cf. M. Eng. skewen - to turn aside. From O.L.G. Cf. D. schuw. Cf. Eng. skewbald, askew. skipper - the master of a ship. From D. schipper. to slabber - to slaver. From O.L.G. Fries. slabbern. Cf. D. slabben, slobberen. slender - thin, feeble. From O.L.G. Cf. D. verslinden. to slepe - to drag. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. slepen. D. sleepen. slim - weak, slender, thin, slight, cunning. Only found lately. Especially in the Lincolnshire dialect. From D. slim. Cf. D. slimme wegen, een slim geval. M.D. slem. Origin unknown. sloop - a one-masted ship. From D. sloap. Origin unknown. slot - a broad, wooden bar, bolt of a door. From O.L.G. Fries. slöt. Cf. D. slot.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 138 sloven - a careless, lazy person. M. Eng. sloveyn. Cf. Coventry Mysteries. From D. slof - slow. Cf. D., sluipen. smack - a fishing-boat. From D., smak - a vessel which is used for fishing or coasting-trade in the North Sea. Origin unknown. smous - dial. Suffolk - a Jew. From D. smous, and this from Jewish German: Mausche, i.e., Moses. snaffle - a bridle with a piece confining the nose and with a slender mouth-piece. Cf. Sir Th. More's Works. From D. snavel, sneb. Cf. D. snappen. to snap - to bite suddenly, to snatch up. Cf. Shakes-peare. Cf. snappish, snap-dragon; to snap - to break suddenly, to seize. From D. snappen. Cf. D. snavel. to snip - to cut off with shears or scissors. Cf. Shakespeare. Cf. snip-snap. From D. snippen, snipperen. Cf. snavel and snappen, and therefore: to pick to pieces with the bill. snot - mucus from the nose. M. Eng. snotte. From O.L.G. Cf. D. snot, snuiten. snow - a ship, a kind of . Cf. Falconer. From D. snauw - a ship with two masts; ship with a bill. Cf. D. snavel. to snuff - to draw in air violently through the nose, to smell. From D. snuffen, snuiven, snuffelen. spa - a place with a spring of mineral water. After the name of the place, Spa, near Liege, Belgium. spellicans - a game played with thin slips of wood. From D. spelleken, speldeken - wooden pin. spinde - a pantry, or larder, dial. From D. spinde - pantry. to splice - to join two rope-ends by interweaving. Naval expression. From D. splitsen, splitten, intensive of D. splÿten - to split.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 139 spool, M. Eng. spole. A reel for winding yarn on. Introduced into England by Flemish weavers. From D. spoel. Cf. Fries. spole. spoor - a trail. From D. spoor, of a wild beast. to sprout - to shoot out germs. M. Eng. spruten. From O.L.G., cf. O. Fries. sprute, D. spruit. - Lord Lieutenant, title of the Princes of Orange. From D. stadhouder. spynde - a pantry. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. spynde - spinde - pantry. Cf. Lat. spenda; expendere, Eng. to spend. D. spandeeren, spÿs. Cf. spinde. staple - a chief commodity. From Fr. estaple and this from L.G. stapel. Cf. D. stapel. to stay - to remain, to wait. Cf. Eng. staid - calm, serious. From O. Fr. estayer - to assist, to help, and this from D. staai, - assistance, leisure, opportunity. Cf. te stade komen. to stipple - to engrave by means of dots. From D. stippelen, frequentative of stippen. stiver - a Dutch penny. From D. . stoker - one who tends the fire. Cf. to stoke. From D. stoker. Cf. steken. stout - bold, strong. M. Eng. stout. From O. Fr. estout and this from O.L.G. Cf. M.D. stout. strand - a string of a rope. With a paragogic ‘d’. From D. streen. M.D. strene. Cf. D. striem. stripe - streak, a blow with a whip. From D. strÿp, streep. to strive - to struggle, to contend. Originally a weak verb in the Eng. M. Eng. striven. From O.F. estriver and this from D. streven - to try, to contend. stuf - dust. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. stof.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 140 sturgeon - a large fish. From Fr. esturgeon, étourgeon and this from D. steur. M.D. store. supper - a meal at the close of the day. M. Eng. soper, super. From O. Fr. soper, super and this from O.L.G. Cf. D. zuipen. M.D. supen. sutler - one who sells provisions in camp. Cf. Shakespeare. From D. zoetelaar - zoedelen; cf. zieden, koken, therefore: eating-house-keeper. swab - to clean the deck. Cf. Shakespeare. Cf. D. swabber. Eng. swab from D. zwabberen, freqentative of zwabben. switch - a small flexible twig. Cf. Shakespeare. From D. zwik - a twig. Cf. D. zwikken. tafferel, taffrail - the upperpart of the stern of a ship. From D. tafereel - tafeleel and this from D. tafel, which is derived from Lat. tabula. tallow - fat of animals melted. M. Eng. talgh. From O.L.G. Cf. D. talk. tampion - kind of plug. From Fr. tampon and this from L.G. Cf. D. tap. tang - a strong taste. From D. tanger - strong, biting. Cf. D. tenger, taai. Origin uncertain. tattoo - spelled in 1627 taptoo - the beat of drum recalling soldiers to their quarters. From D. taptoe - doe den tap toe. to tiff - to deck, dress out. From O. Fr. tiffer and this from O.L.G. Cf. D. tippen. Cf. D. het haar tippen. to toot - to blow a horn. From O.L.G. Cf. D. toeten. touch-wood - wood for taking fire from a spark; touch is a corruption of M. Eng. tache, tach. From L.G. Cf. D. tak. Therefore the meaning really is: tak (-branch) or stokhout (stick-wood).

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 141 toy - a plaything. Cf. Shakespeare. Cf. to toy - to trifle, dally. From D. tuig, cf. speelting. Cf. tiegen, to draw. to trek - to go to another place. South African. Cf. trekboer. From D. trekken. trick - a stratagem, fraud, parcel of cards won at once, lineament. Cf. Shakespeare. Cf. to trick - to dress out, to adorn, to blazon. From D. trek, in many meanings. trigger - tricker - a catch, which, when pulled, lets fall the hammer or cock of a gun. From D. trekker. trinket, trinquet - the highest sail of a ship. From Fr. trinquet; this from Sp. trinquete and this from D. strikken with loss of the ‘s’. tub - a small cask. M. Eng. tubbe, cf. Chaucer. Introduced into England by Flemish brewers. From D. tobbe, M.D. tubbe, cf. Fries. tubbe. to tuck - to draw close together. From O.L.G. Cf. D. tokken - to draw, to attract. to tug - to pull, to drag. From O.L.G. Cf. D. tokken, tiegen. twill - woven stuff with an appearance of diagonal lines in textile fabrics. From D. twillen. ungheluch - unhappiness. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. ongheluck. D. ongeluk. unto - to, M. Eng. unto. It consists of und+to. Und from O.L.G. Cf. O. Fries. und. Goth. und. Cf. until. uproar - a tumult, disturbance. Cf. Shakespeare. From D. oproer. veldt - field. South African. From D. veld. volksraad - the People's council; an elected legislative body. South African. From D. volksraad. vrouw - woman. South African. From D. vrouw.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 142 vysevase - a folly, a whim. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. vysevase. Cf. D. fazelen, vazen, feziken. wafer - a thin small cake. M. Eng. wafre. From O. Fr. waufre, gaufre and this from O.L.G. Cf. D. wafel, weven. wagon, waggon - a wain, vehicle for goods. Cf. Spenser. The Eng. form of this word is wain, A.S. waegn. From D. wagen. wainscot - panelled boards on the walls of rooms, cf. Shakespeare. From D. wagenschot - wandeschot; wagen by folk etymology from Fries. weeg-wall; A.S. wah - wooden wall. walnut - a foreign nut. The first syllable is the name Waal. Cf. Wales, Cornwall. wapper - cudgel. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. wappere - cudgel. water-gueux - a name first given in contempt to the Protestant nobles and afterwards adopted by various bodies of Dutch in the wars with Spain. From D. watergeus. wentele - to twist, to turn round. Cf. 1481, Caxton, Reynard. From M.D. wentelen - to turn. wig - periwig - a peruke. From D. peruyk and this from Fr. perrigue. Cf. D. pruik. wreck - destruction, ruin, cf. shipwreck. Already in the 13th century. M. Eng. wreck. From D. wrak - damaged, a damaged ship. Cf. D. getuigen wraken. yacht - a swift pleasure boat. Cf. Evelyn's Diary 1661. From D. jacht, jachtship, fast ship. Cf. D. jagen. yawl - a small boat. From D. jol - small vessel.

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Part III The Influence of the Netherlands on English Literature

Chapter XII On Caedmon

The name of Caedmon is one of the most prominent in the history of early English literature. Everybody knows the beautiful poems of old Christian England on ‘the beginning of created things’ in paraphrases on Genesis (Chap. I-XXII) extending to the story of the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, on Exodus (Chap. II-XV), on Daniel, and the three minor poems, the first one dealing with the Fall of the Angels, the second one with Christ's Harrowing of Hell, and the third one with Christ's Temptation. ‘No one would today seriously maintain even that these poems are all by one author; it is more likely that more than one writer has had a hand in each’1 One interpolated part, in the second version of the Fall of the Angels in the paraphrases on Genesis, has been brought into connection with the author of the Heliand.2 And as the Heliand was probably written under the immediate suggestion of Ludger,3 the great Dutch missionary among the Saxons along the borderline of Holland and Germany,

1 The Cambridge History of English Literature, I, 50. 2 Sievers, Der Heliand und die Angelsachsische genesis. 3 On Ludger see the first chapters.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 144 we may see in the poems of Caedmon ‘a fruitful exchange of literary ideas’ between England, the Netherlands, and the western part of Germany during the first half of the ninth century. But there is another interesting point, viz., the question how these poems of Caedmon, as they are generally called, became first a subject of study, how they were published, and became at last a subject of discussion in every textbook of English Literature. This has been as a whole the work of the well-known Dutch scholar, Franciscus Junius.1 During his sojourn in England, Junius collected transcripts of many old English manuscripts, and in the year 1649 he got from Archbishop Ussher a copy of the manuscript containing the poems, which Junius, in consequence of the description given by Bede of a certain poet Caedmon and his poems, called the poems of Caedmon, and under that name published them in the year 1655 at Amsterdam,2 so that these famous poems were first studied by a Dutchman, and were first printed in Holland.

1 On Junius, see our first chapters. 2 ‘Diese Veroffentlichung war bahnbrechend für die Entschliessung der Angelsachsischen Poesie, da mit Ausnahme eines unbedeutenden Stückes bis dahin nur prosaische Denkmahler herausgegeben waren.’ Herman Paul. Grundriss, I, 35.

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Chapter XIII On the Stories of King Arthur, and the French Romances of Chivalry in England

The stories of King Arthur were written originally, as far as we know, in Latin by Geoffrey of Monmouth about the year 1140. From Latin, this collection of Welsh and English legends was translated into French verse by a Frenchman called Wace. And from the French they were translated into English by the well-known Layamon in his Brut. Now the French language was the official language in England from the time of the Norman Conquest in the year 1066, till the year 1362, when English was made the language of the law courts, and the year 1386 when English displaced French in the schools. During three hundred years (from 1066 till 1362), the French language was the language of the upper classes in England - the language of those classes who read books and studied literature. During those three centuries it was the French romances of chivalry, telling the stories of King Arthur, and his round table, of Charlemagne, of Alexander the Great, and the story of the siege of Troy, which formed the reading and the main literature of the higher educated classes in England. Now, in composing these French romances of chivalry, including many of the Arthurian legends, the Southern Netherlands had a good share. Not only did many of the stories originate in the Netherlands, where the cradle of the Carolingians was to be found at Herstal, and where

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Charlemagne had his residence at Ninwegen, but some of the best poets who told these romances lived there. Chrétien de Troyes, one of the most famous of these poets, lived for some years at the court of the Count of Flanders; he died about the year 1175; and he wrote at least five Arthur romances, entitled Erec and Enide, Cligès, Le Chevalier de la Charette (Lancelot), le Chevalier au Lion (Yvain), and le conte du Saint-Graal (Perceval).1 Other poets, as Adam de la Halle and Jehan Bodel, lived at Atrecht in the Southern Netherlands. The setting of many of these romances is in the Netherlands, and no doubt the civilization and the conditions of the Low Countries have been a prevailing influence for the poets who lived there.2 How far the works of Jacob van Maerlant (1235-1300) had influence in England is not yet decided. We know that there was all the time a close and frequent intercourse between the Netherlands and England. We know that Maerlant, whose poems, now all printed, cover not less than 226,000 lines, criticized the corruption of the clergy, and the oppression of the poor under the feudal system, long before William Langland in 1362 did the same in England, by writing his ‘Vision Concerning Piers, the Ploughman’; we know that Maerlant translated the Bible, in rhymed verse, into the Dutch vernacular long before Wicliff translated the Bible into English in 1380. But how far this reformatory and democratic movement in the Netherlands was the cause of the same movement in England more than half a century later, remains for historical and literary research to discover.

1 W.J.A. Jonckbloet, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Letterkunde, I, 117. 2 For further information see the quoted works of Jonckbloet and Kalff.

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The same we must say about any probable influence of the literary movement in the Southern Netherlands on Chaucer. We know that Chaucer was well acquainted with France and Italy; that he was not at all a stranger on the continent; that very probably he may have visited Flanders, and have come in contact with the literary circles in the Netherlands; but here also is a field still to be explored and about which we can only conjecture, not decide. We know that Chaucer was closely connected with the court of Edward III, and even that he bore arms in Edward III's expedition into France, while Edward was very familiar with the Flemish cities, and with the Count of Holland, who brought him to the throne, and whose daughter, Philippa, he married; we know that he made a treaty with them, and tried to persuade his Flemish supporters to accept his son, the Black Prince, as their sovereign. But historical and literary researches in this field have hardly been begun, and we can only infer from the well-known general conditions and relations that some considerable influence may have been exerted. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when modern democracy arose in the free cities of the Southern Netherlands, where at that time wealth and luxury was being accumulated, when the religious movement of the Reformation took the leadership of this democracy, there was a development of literary life in the Netherlands of which one hardly gets an adequate idea. The literary societies, called Chambres de Rhetorique, were so numerous, and so flourishing, in every one of the Flemish cities, and the miracle plays and morality plays - those precursors of our modern drama - were written in such numbers that their influence on the whole people, and on the lit-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 148 erature of other nations, especially of England, must have been much larger than as yet is generally known. We know, for instance, that one poet, by the name of Thomas de Kasteleyne, wrote more than one hundred plays, and that the land-jewels, where sometimes more than thirty guilds of Rhetoric met in competition, were great attractions at that time, when, according to all historians, England was very far behind in civilization, in industry, in trade, in art and in literature.

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Chapter XIV On William Caxton

William Caxton is the famous name connected with the introduction of the printing press into England. Caxton printed more than one hundred books. ‘A greater benefactor, indeed, to the intellectual improvement of his country it would be difficult to mention than him, who introduced the art of printing.’ His four hundredth anniversary was celebrated in England on the 18th of November, 1877, that date having been adopted as marking the introduction of printing into England, because, according to the unique colophon of a copy of the ‘Dictes and Sayinges of the Philosophers’ this work was published on the 15th of November, 1477, while the date of the earliest publications of Caxton is unknown. ‘For many years an old building, which tumbled down in 1846, was pointed out as Caxton's house, but it was proved to be no older than the time of Charles the Second. This did not prevent parts of the woodwork being made into walking-sticks and snuff-boxes, and presented to various patrons of literature as genuine relics of our famous printer.’1 Born in ‘Kent in the Weeld,’ a place about the situation of which topographers do not agree, and at a date (perhaps 1420) unknown till this day, William Caxton was educated to be a merchant. In the year 1438 he was entered apprentice to Robert Large,

1 F.C. Price, Facsimiles with a Memoir of our first Printer. London, 1877. Printed only in 125 copies.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 150 who, in the next year, became Lord Mayor of London, and died in 1441. One year after the death of his master, Caxton went abroad and lived at Bruges, the Burgundian Capital in the Southern Netherlands, and he stayed there for the following thirty-five years, with the exception of some short visits to London, Cologne and perhaps some other places. As a youth of twenty years, Caxton came to the Netherlands; as a man of fifty-five he went back to England, to spend there the remaining fourteen years of his life, so that for more than half of his life he lived in the Netherlands. In 1463 Caxton became what they called at that time ‘governor of the English nation’ at Bruges, which post he retained till the year 1469; but about this time some reverse of fortune apparently befell him, by which he was obliged to leave Bruges for a while. But in the year 1467 Count had married Margaret, the sister of the English King, Edward IV, and now we know that Caxton ‘received some appointment in the court of the English wife of Charles at Bruges, and became a favorite with the noble lady.’1 Before the Princess Margaret came to the Netherlands, Caxton, having no great charge or occupation, had commenced for his amusement the translation of ‘Le recueil des Histoires de Troye’ by Raoul le Fèvre, from French into English, but, discouraged, he had abandoned the task. This he told one time to Margaret and she, as he himself tells it, not only encouraged but commanded him to continue and finish the work. Caxton obeyed and the translation was finished in 1471. The work was printed at Bruges by Caxton, and Colard Mansion, a copyist and calligrapher, who about that time had started a printing office. After this first book, another one was printed, viz., ‘The game and the

1 Price, Facsimiles and Memoir

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 151 playe of chesse moralysed,’ and soon after that time Caxton took leave of the land of his adoption, where he had lived for thirty-five years, and arrived at London, ‘laden with a freight more precious than the most opulent merchant adventurer ever dreamed of, to endow his country with that inestimable blessing, the printing press.’1 ‘Towards the end of the year 1476 or in the beginning of 1477 we find Caxton in occupation at Westminster, his press erected in the Almonry. At the time Caxton started in England his whole stock of type consisted of two fonts, or sets of types, a church or text type, and a secretary type. These fonts he purchased in the Low Countries and brought them with him.’2 From that time Caxton began the printing of a series of at least one hundred works, which continued till his death in the year 1491. As a young apprentice of a merchant's office, Caxton went to the Netherlands, and after thirty-five years he came back to England as a man, acquainted with book-printing, with the literature, the language, with the whole civilization of a city like Bruges, the capital of the Burgundian Counts, the most brilliant and most luxurious, the most wealthy, and highly civilized center of European civilization, at that time. The fruits of his thirty-five years of abode in the Netherlands we see in what he performed during the remaining fourteen years of work in his native country. As translator and as printer he blessed his people with the literature, and the civilization, he had observed, and made himself acquainted with, in the Netherlands. To the Dutch language he was so accustomed that he used many Dutch words (of which

1 Ibid. 2 Price, Facsimiles and Memoir.

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De Hoog gives a list of twenty-nine examples) as if they were pure English. The famous animal-epos of Reinard the Fox he translated, not from the original French, but from the Dutch version, which is ‘much superior to the original and admittedly the finest version of the Reynard story.’1

1 Herbert J.C. Grierson, in vol. VIII, p. 5, of the Periods of European Literature, by Prof. Saintsbury, New York, 1906.

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Chapter XV On Prognostications or Prophetic Almanacs

During the last part of the fifteenth, and the whole sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the literature of Prognostications or prophetic almanacs was quite prominent and popular. They form one of the superstitious extravagances and abuses which accompanied the great religious movement of the Reformation, but which had their origin more in the revival of the heathen traditions of ancient history, which was fostered by the humanistic movement of the Renaissance. Martin Luther brought these astronomic predictions to ridicule in his ‘Table-talk’; King Henry III of France prohibited, in 1579, the making of political predictions in almanacs; in England satires were written against them, for instance, one in 1544 entitled ‘A Mery Prognostication’ written in ridicule of those false prognostications against which Henry the Eighth considered it necessary or advisable to level a proclamation. Another satire of the same kind from the year 1623 has been republished by James O. Halliwell, London, 1860. The first almanac printed in England is from the year 1497, being the Calender of Shepardis. But before this time, and also in later years, they were introduced in England from the continent, and especially from the Netherlands. In the year 1491, Gaspar Laet, physician at Antwerp, published a prognostication written in Latin, and dedicated to William Schevez, archbishop of St. Andrews. In the year 1515 the same Gaspar Laet published a

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‘Prognostication for the year 1516’ with this addition: ‘this prognostication of Master Jasper Laet of Borchloon, doctour of astrologie, of the year 1516, is translated into English by Nicholas Longwater.’ Several years later, in 1534, a prognostication of the same Flemish author was published in English as ‘Prognostication by Gaspar Late of Antwerpe, calked (calculated) upon the meridyan of the same citie for the year of our Lorde God.’1 Although this popular literature of the Prognostications is not of such great importance, it shows again, like the story of Caxton, that at that time the civilization and the literature of The Netherlands exerted its influence on England.

1 W. de Hoog, Studien, II, 26.

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Chapter XVI On Thomas a Kempis

Quite different from that of the Dutch Prognostications, was the influence of Thomas a Kempis on the spirit of the English people, and, consequently, on the expression of that spirit in English literature. The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis, has a world-wide fame, and its influence can hardly be overestimated. ‘In 1828 M. Languinais reckoned the editions and translations of the “Imitation,” a book which Johnson said the world had opened its arms to receive, at more than two thousand. He saw in the library of the Vatican, translations in the Catalan, Castilian, Flemish, Portuguese, Dutch, Bohemian, Polish, Greek, English, Hungarian, Illyrian, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Turkish, Armenian, Persian, and other languages; so that the words of Samuel Johnson, cited in the preface, “that the book had been reprinted as many times as there were months since its first production,” are not exaggerated, if we consider the many versions which have been printed of this singular book.’1 The original Latin edition was spread over all Europe since the time of its first appearance in the year 1471. English editions followed soon, within a few years after the printing press was introduced into England. We find at least the following English editions: 1. Mayrtes, William, the Imitation or the following of Christ. London, W. de Worde

1 English edition of Samson Low, Son and Marston. London, 1865, Preface, XXIII.

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and Rich. Pinson in 4o, without date, probably about the end of the 15th century. Reprinted by Rich. Pinson, London, 1503. 2. Atkinson, the Imitation, etc., Lon. W. de Worde and Pinson, 1504. This translation was made at the express command of the mother of Henry VII. 3. Hake, Edward, of Gray's Inn. The Imitation, or following of Christ, and the contending of worldly vanities, at first written by Thomas Kempise, a Dutchman, amended and polished by Sebastien Castalio, an Italian, and Englished by Edward Hake, London, 1567, reprinted 1568. 4. Rogers, Thomas. The Imitation or following of Christ, 1584. This contains only the first three books. In 1592 Rogers published the fourth, under the title of ‘Soliloquium Animae.’ ‘The Sole Talke of Soule; or a Spiritual and Heauenlie Dialogue between the Soule of Man and God.’ Reprinted 1596. 5. Page, William. The Imitation or following of Christ, London, 1597. 6. Milburne, Luke. The Imitation or following of Christ, translation in verse, 1697. 7. Stanhope, Dean. The Christian's Pattern, or a treatise on the Imitation of Christ, 6th edition, in 1708. The text is herein much mutilated. 8. Payne, John. The Imitation of Christ, 1763, in 8vo. Dove reproduced this in his Classics. Payne was a government clerk and afterwards a bookseller. Dibdin has used this translation. 9. Challoner, The Rev. The Imitation or following of Christ. A very faithful translation, often reprinted. 10. Dibdin, Thomas Frognall. Of the Imitation of Jesus Christ, translated from the Latin original, ascribed to Thomas a Kempis, with an introduction and notes. William Pickering, London, printed by William Nicol at the Shakespeare Press, 1828.

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During the nineteenth century many more English editions were published, and even at the present time, in nearly every book store, in America as well as in England, an English version of the Imitation is in stock. Not without reason one may ask: What was the attraction of this wonderful book? What was its influence? What was the spiritual and literary movement, and who was the author that produced this marvel in the history of human literature, and blessed with it the Christian world of the 15th century? Let me answer these questions with a few words. Its attraction is in the wonderful piety and honesty, the simplicity and naiveté with which the author speaks to the very heart of the reader. The author's faith is so thoroughly that of a Christian ‘pure and simple,’ his love of God is so intense, his admiration of the love and mercy of God is so fresh, and ever present, that it not only attracts but overpowers, at least for a moment, every reader in whose soul is left the slightest idea of religion. Its influence was, and is, in making a revival of religion in the heart of the reader; in laying the sound foundation of every real reformation; in interpreting the word of the Lord: ‘Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew XI:28); in bringing back the restless human soul face to face with its heavenly Father, and with the Christ Consolator. The immense consequences of the influence of the Imitation on the religious movement of the 15th and the 16th centuries can hardly be overestimated. Without talking about the outward form and government of the Church, it lays full stress on inner, personal piety and devotion. If the outward form of Church government proves

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 158 to be an obstacle to that inward piety, the nations soon will change that outward Church. In that way Thomas a Kempis became one of the great precursors of Luther, Calvin and Knox. The spiritual and literary movement, in the midst of which the author lived from his twelfth year till his death, was that of the ‘brethren of common life’ in the Netherlands during the 15th century. Gerard Groot of Deventer, and Florentius Radewÿn, are the founders of this Brotherhood of Common Life. From the Southern Netherlands, from Johannes Ruysbroek at Groenendaal, near Brussels, this revival, this reformation of inner Christian life came to the northern Provinces. Two years after the death of Gerard Groot, in the year 1386, the monastery of Agnetenberg, near Windeshiem, four miles to the southeast of Zwolle, was founded by this Brotherhood, and it was in this monastery that Thomas a Kempis spent the greater part of his life and there he wrote his Imitation of Christ. The Congregation of Common Life, founded by Gerard Groot and Florentius Radewÿn, became a famous center of learning and education in the midst of the corruption of the late mediaeval time. ‘Strange and troubled were those times, and fraught with scandal and confusion. Human ambition and the curses of wealth and worldliness had eaten their way, so far as God permitted, in the very fold of Christ. Prosperity had done its worst. What persecution had failed to do, luxury bade fair to accomplish. To a considerable extent the morals of the people and even of the clergy, from the highest to the lowest, were deeply corrupted, and the church appeared in urgent danger.’1 In such a time, the thoughts that filled the minds of Gerard

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Groot and Florentius Radewÿn, when they inaugurated the Congregation of Common Life, were as follows: ‘In the first place, it was designed that its members should endeavor, from their hearts, to return to the life of the early Christians; to such a life as the Apostles led when following our Lord Jesus Christ on earth, and which they and their companions carried out after His ascent into heaven. All were to live in common, to work for the general good, to hold their worldly possessions in community, and to spend their leisure hours in prayer and works of charity.’1 In this community, Thomas a Kempis entered as a boy of twelve years, and stayed there till he died at the age of ninety-one. He was born at Kempen, near Cologne in Germany, not far from the borderline between the Netherlands and Germany, and in one of those provinces where was spoken the same low German dialect which was the language of the Dutch Provinces along the border of Germany. So he was by his birth what we should call in America ‘Pennsylvania Dutch.’ But in his twelfth year, he left Germany, and stayed the remaining seventy-eight years in the Netherlands, and as far as his education, the spirit of his works, and of his life is concerned, he was a son of the Brethren of Common Life in the Netherlands.

1 F.R. Cruise, Thomas á Kempis, London, 1887, p. 33. 1 Ibid, p. 64.

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Chapter XVII Elckerlÿc and Everyman

In the numerous morality-plays of the 14th and 15th centuries, the rising democracy celebrates one of its great triumphs. Delivering themselves from the bondage of the feudal system, and growing more civilized and better educated every day, notwithstanding the hierarchic system of the church, the free citizens of the powerful cities, especially in Flanders, self-supporting, self-reliant and self-directing as they were, began to develop their own literature and their own art. Producing their own wealth, proud of their own privileges, strengthening their own power in their guilds, and in their cities, these children of the rising democracy poured out their wonderfully fresh, youthful energy in every department of human life. Instead of the mystery-plays and the miracle-plays of the mediaeval church, the free citizens asked for their morality-plays, not to exclude their religious life but to include their social life in the sphere of their literary education. ‘From a performance within the church building it went on into the church yard or the adjoining close or street, and so into the town at large. The clerics still kept a hand in its purveyance; but the rise of the town guilds gave it a new character, a new relation to the current life, and a larger equipment. The friendly rivalry between the guilds and the craftsmen's pride in not being outdone by other crafts, helped to stimulate the town-play till

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 161 at length the elaborate cycle was formed that began with sunrise on a June morning and lasted until the torch-bearers were called out at dark to stand at the foot of the pageant.’1 Enormous is the number of morality-plays produced during those first centuries of the rising democracy, at the dawn of modern history, and one of the most famous among them is that of ‘Everyman,’ or, as the original Dutch play is called, ‘Elckerlÿc.’ The full title is, ‘Den Spieghel der Salichheit van Elckerlÿc’ - (The mirror of salvation for every man). This great and simple tragic masterpiece is called ‘the noblest interlude of death, the religious imagination of the middle ages has given to the stage.’2 Maintaining the idea that moral and religious life are inseparably connected, this play shows from the beginning to the end its grand tendency and its sublime character, as we read on the title page of the English translation, ‘Here beginneth a treatise how the High Father of Heaven sendeth Death to summon every creature to come and give account of their lives in this world, and is in manner of a moral play.’ The original Dutch play was probably written by a monk, Pieter Dorland (1454-1507) at Diest, about the year 1485, and for the first time printed about the year 1495. In a competition between the guilds of rhetoric at Antwerp in the year 1500, Elckerlÿc got the first prize. In 1536 it was translated into Latin as ‘Homulus,’ and soon afterwards a German bookprinter at Cologne published a German version to which was given a Lutheran tendency.3 Within a very short time after its first appearance it was

1 Ernest Rhys, Poetry and the Drama, in Everyman's Library, Introduction, p. XIV. 2 Ibid, XV.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 162 translated into English, and this became the reason why among the philologists in the nineteenth century, who studied the history of this play, the question arose whether the Dutch or the English version was the original. For several years it was a very spirited controversy between the philologists in the Netherlands. Prof. Moltzer and later De Raef, Prof. Logeman, Pollard and Kalff, maintained from the beginning the priority of the Dutch play. But other men of good fame, as Prof. Cozyn, Van Helten, Te Winkel and De Hoog defended the priority of the English version. At present the question can be considered as decided. The elaborate researches of Prof. Logeman1 of Ghent and the last studies on this subject of Prof. J.M. Monly2 and Prof. Francis A. Wood,3 at the University of Chicago, have left no room for any further doubt about the priority of the Dutch play. According to Prof. Manly, the arguments of Prof. Logeman in 1902 were ‘enough, indeed, in my opinion, to settle the question of priority definitely and finally,’ but ‘unfortunately, as it seems to me, Professor Logeman, in his attempt at an entirely objective treatment, has buried his decisive arguments under a mass of interesting, but indecisive and sometimes erroneous discussions; and this is the reason why his pamphlet was not recognized as containing the final words on the subject.’ Although decided by Prof. Logeman in 1902, the researches of Prof. Wood on this question are entirely independent of those of Logeman, for ‘the main evidence here presented is of a different character’ from that of Prof. Logeman, and the conclusion of Prof. Wood is as

3 W. de Hoog, Studien, II, 22. 1 H. Logeman, Elckerlyc, Everyman, De vraag naar de Prioriteit, opnieuw onderzocht. Gand., 1902. 2 In Modern Philology, October, 1910. 3 In Modern Philology, October, 1910.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 163 follows: ‘In conclusion it may be said that, though Everyman in one or two instances may have improved on the original, Elckerlÿc, as a whole, is artistically superior. With the exception of a very few passages where the text is evidently corrupt, Elckerlÿc is written in fairly good language and meter. It is theologically correct and remarkably consistent and logical. It must have been the product of a trained mind. On the other hand, Everyman is faulty in language and meter, wrong in theology, inapt in its biblical allusions, full of inconsistencies, and betrays on every page the hand of an unskilled workman who was not even capable of making a good translation.’ At this conclusion we are not surprised. If two plays so much alike in subject and contents, in English and in Dutch, were written during the 19th century, we should presume the Dutch to be probably a translation from the English, or at least we should not be surprised if this was proved to be the fact. But at the end of the 15th century we feel inclined in such cases to presume the priority of the Dutch, in accordance with the general conditions of those countries during that period of the world's history. Exceptions to this general rule, of course, are possible, and do exist; but in this case we have only another example of Holland's influence on English literature at the end of the 15th century, just the same as in the case of Caxton. Not a Dutch Caxton learned book printing in England, but an Englishman Caxton learned book printing in the Netherlands to introduce it into England. In the same way, an Englishman, although hardly able to do this work, translated the famous masterpiece of Pieter Dorland to introduce it into England.

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Chapter XVIII On Desiderius Erasmus, 1467-1536

If there is any son of the Dutch nation whose name is familiar to the English people, and whose works have been read during four centuries by everybody in the highest circles of English society, it is Desiderius Erasmus. Not only because he had his pupils among the sons of the English aristocracy, not only because he was the intimate friend of Thomas Moore, but because of his Christian humanism, his high erudition and marvelous learning, his fine humor and criticism, attacking every kind of corruption and yet avoiding martyrdom, the entertaining style of his letters and books - this altogether has given to Erasmus that popularity among the higher classes of English society, which even after four hundred years has never ceased to accompany his familiar name. The young English nobleman, Lord Mountjoy, knew what he did, when, in the year 1497, he invited Erasmus, his tutor in Paris, to England, in order to bless his friends and his country with the wonderful learning and with the entertaining conversation of this broad-minded scholar, whose amiable humor and universal criticism, perhaps in no country was needed and appreciated as much as in England at the end of the 15th century. The influence of Erasmus was a European one. His life was an international life: his works were printed and read in nearly every country, and his

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 165 name was known even in the remotest corners of Christianity. And yet, his relation to England is a peculiar one, neither to be exaggerated nor to be underestimated. Born at Rotterdam in the year 1467, he was educated in the Northern Provinces of the Netherlands till the twenty-seventh year of his life. Then there follow twenty years (1494-1519) in which we find him in France, in the Southern Netherlands (the only country where he had for years his own house - at Louvain), in England, and in Italy. And finally the third period of his life (1519-1536) in which he settled at as editor in connection with the Froben-press till the death of his friend Froben, after which he retired to Freiburg in Breisgau, to stay there for seven years. In 1535 he returned to Basel, where he died the next year. It was during the second period of his life (1497-1519) that he visited England, according to one of his biographers, Drummond,1 four times; according to Nichols,2 the editor of a part of his letters, six times. According to his correspondence, as published by Nichols, Erasmus was in England, first, from May, 1499, to January, 1500 (six months); second, from April, 1505, to June, 1506 (fourteen months); third, from July, 1509, to July, 1514 (five years); fourth, from March, 1515, to June, 1515 (three months); fifth, in August, 1516; sixth, in April, 1517; altogether nearly seven years, which was a tenth part of his whole life. His personal influence with the most learned men of all Europe is evident from his letters published as

1 R.B. Drummond, Erasmus. His Life and Character. 2 vols. London, 1873. 2 Francis Morgan Nichols, The Epistles of Erasmus, from his earliest letters to his fifty-first year. English translations, 2 vols. London, 1904.

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Vols. IV and V of the edition of Erasmus' works in ten volumes in 1703 at Leyden, a part of which now have been translated and published by Nichols in two volumes. In the personal influence of Erasmus, England had a good share, since his most intimate friend was Thomas More (1478-1535) whom he himself called ‘a friend dearer to me than all besides.’ It was Thomas More who advised Erasmus to write his ‘Praise of Folly,’ and it is said that Erasmus wrote this famous book from his note-book in one week at the house of More. To stay in the home of More, in the midst of this delightful family, where the oldest daughter, Margaret-they called her ‘Mek’-was, for instance, so well educated that she knew the Greek and the Latin languages very well, must have been for Erasmus very pleasant and interesting. Some of the best information about Thomas More we have from Erasmus. He tells us that More published his ‘Utopia’ to point out the circumstances which diminish the happiness of states in general, but the British he chiefly had in view, the constitution of which he knows and understands thoroughly. The second book had been written some time during his leisure - he afterwards, as occasion served, wrote the first offhand. Hence there is some inequality of style.’1 Erasmus himself took care of the printing of More's Utopia. The close connection of Erasmus with More, with Colet, with the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and with many other prominent men in England, have made his life most interesting for the study of English history. His longest abode in England, 1509-1514, was at the time when Henry VIII

1 See Retrospective Review, Vol. V, 1822, p. 257, article on the Letters of Erasmus. In the edition of 1703 this quotation is to be found in an elaborate letter of Erasmus to Ulrich von Hutten on Thomas More, dated, Antwerp, July 23, 1519. Vol. III, p. 472-477.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 167 came to the throne, and began to act as a protector of sciences and arts. How little could Erasmus imagine at that time that twenty-five years later, in 1535, the message would reach him that his dearest friend, More, was put to death by the same , and his head exposed on London bridge. Erasmus' personal influence on More, who was eleven years his junior, and on all the learned men in England with whom he came in contact, can hardly be overestimated. He was to them a living dictionary for all kinds of civilization and learning which existed in the great centers of the European continent, a civilization which at that time was in many respects ahead of that in England. From his letters we know how he gave advice about nearly everything. He even gave them advice how to get rid of their manifold diseases, such as the plague, by cleaning their houses and building them in a more sanitary way. This advice, given to the physician of Cardinal Wolsey, is for us the more remarkable because he describes in it the condition of the houses in which the upper classes in England lived at that time, and the more trustworthy because he wrote this to a man who knew all about it.1 The editor of the Retrospective Review, in Vol. V, 1822, p. 250, gives a translation of this letter, and probably because he did not like this description of the English houses translated it incorrectly. Erasmus tells among other things that the floors of the houses generally were of clay and covered with rushes, which were so seldom renewed that the covering sometimes remained twenty years, conceal-

1 This letter is to be found in Tom., III, p. 1815, as Epistola 432 of the Appendix, Ed., Leyden, 1703. This edition of Erasmus' works is in 10 volumes, of which vols. III and IV contain the correspondence giving at first 1298 letters from and to Erasmus, and furthermore an Appendix containing 517 letters. At the end we find a careful index of names and one of subjects.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 168 ing beneath a mass of all descriptions of filth and other abominations not fit to mention. In translating this part, the poor zealot of English patriotism renders in this way: ‘The streets are generally covered,’ etc., which, of course, gives no sense at all in this connection.1 If used in such a way, even the best sources for the truth of history lose their value. In connection with this description, and advice of Erasmus, F.M. Nichols, in his translation of a part of Erasmus' letters says: ‘And the accounts published in the abstracts of state papers show with how little comfort the highest personages were compelled to be content within royal palaces. A pallet for my lord marquis' bed and rushes for my lord's chamber are supplemented with an ounce of clover to make perfume to overcome the evil odors. We may imagine how my lord's numerous gentlemen and servants were lodged.’2 Quite another advice than that to clean the houses, and to build them in a more sanitary way, was that which Erasmus gave to his friend, Faustus Andrelinus, poet laureate, who lived in France for his health, and whom Erasmus advised to come to England for a reason which we hardly should expect from a man who remained a bachelor for all his life. At that time Erasmus himself was only thirty-two years of age, and he himself was for the first time in England. Invited by his pupil. Lord Mountjoy, it seems that he had a very good time, and so he wrote to his friend: ‘If you knew well the advantages of Britain, truly you would hasten hither with wings to your feet, and

1 Erasmus wrote literally this: ‘Tum sola fere strata sunt argilla, tum scirpis palustribus, qui subinde sic renovantur, ut fundamentum maneat aliquoties annos viginti, sub se fovens sputa, vomitus, mictum canum et huminum. projectam cervisiam, et piscium reliquias, aliasque sordes non nominanda.’ Appendix Epistola, 432, p. 1815. Opera, Tomus, III, ed. 1703. Leyden. 2 F.M. Nichols, Epistles of Erasmus, II, p. 44.

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DESIDERIUS ERASMUS. Kopergravure naar en door Albert Dürer

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 169 if your gout would not permit, you would wish you possessed the art of Daedalus. For just to touch on one thing out of many, here there are lasses with heavenly faces, kind, obliging; and you would far prefer them to all your muses. There is, besides, a practice never to be sufficiently commended. If you go to any place, you are received with a kiss by all; if you depart on a journey you are dismissed with a kiss; you return, kisses are exchanged; they come to visit you, a kiss the first thing; they leave you, you kiss them all round; do they meet you anywhere? kisses in abundance - lastly, wherever you move, there is nothing but kisses. And if you, Faustus, had but once tasted them, how soft they are, how fragrant, on my honour you would wish not to reside here for ten years only, but to take up your abode in England for life;’1 Hundreds are the subjects treated in the letters of Erasmus showing the abundance of his knowledge, and the most interesting way he uses it. It is a delight just to look through the beautiful index of subjects in the edition of 1703 of Erasmus' works and the man who made that index must have known more about Erasmus than most of his biographers. From his correspondence we may deduce the character of his conversation, and it is clear that his personal influence, by his letters as well as by his conversation, must have been remarkable. Not less than his personal influence was that of his writings. This is evident to everybody who looks at the many editions of his most famous books, as the Adages, the Praise of Folly and the Colloquies. In the bibliography of Erasmus, called Bibliotheca Erasmiana, published in seven volumes by the University of Ghent, there are mentioned 258 editions of the

1 Epistola, 65. p. 55. Opera Tom., III, Ed. 1703. The translation of this letter is in Retrospective Review, vol. V, p. 251.

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Adages and of parts of it, 247 editions of the Praise of Folly and 483 editions of the Colloquies and of parts of it. Many of these editions are, of course, in the original Latin, in which Erasmus wrote them, and in which they were spread all over Europe. But translations soon followed, and the 247 editions of the Praise of Folly are divided as follows: Latin 99, French 55, Dutch 32, English 22, German 21, Italian 14, Spanish 1, Swedish 1, Danish 1, Hungarian 1. The first Latin edition is of the year 1511 at Paris; the first English of 1549; the first Dutch of 1560; the first German of 1520, and the first French of 1520. The first edition of the Adages is of the year 1500 at Paris; the first English translation of 1539 at London; the first German of 1539; the first Dutch of 1556. The first edition contained only 400 proverbs, some of the later editions more than 4,000. The first edition of the Colloquies is of the year 1518 at Basel, but the translations of this work followed much later; the first of the 61 French editions is of the year 1720; the first of the 16 Dutch ones of 1610; the first of the 38 German ones of 1683; the first of the 48 English ones of 1671; two Greek editions were of the years 1566 and 1567 at Antwerp; one in Russian and Dutch of the year 1716; the first of the seven Italian editions is of 1545; the first of the seven Spanish ones of 1529 at Sevilla. These lists of editions tell more than volumes about Erasmus' influence. And even some of the much less known works of Erasmus, as for instance his Apophthegmata, or as they are called in English the ‘Apophtegmes, that is to saie prompte, quicke, wittie and sentencious saiynges of certain emperours, kynges, capitaines, philosophers’ have been published in a great number of

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 171 editions. The bibliography of Erasmus, referred to above, mentions 98 editions of the Apophtegmes; 68 in Latin, of which the first is in the year 1531; 4 in English, of which the first is in 1542; 22 in French, of which the first is in 1539; one in Italian, in 1546; two in Spanish, both in 1549; and one in Dutch in the year 1672. To investigate the reasons why these works were translated so many years earlier in one country than in another would take too long a time for the present purpose. It is also a difficult question why so many more editions appeared in one country than in another. In the investigation of these questions there is still room for some doctoral theses. In Holland, for instance, they did not need translations because the majority of the readers of Erasmus' works preferred the Latin original. His influence on England, and consequently on the English literature by his conversation and his correspondence, as well as by his works, has been a threefold one: First, in bringing the best educated circles in England more closely into contact with the civilization of the continent; secondly, by fostering the study of the Roman and Greek literature with all its treasures of human knowledge and wisdom of life; and in the third place, by his criticism, in humor and in satire, of the corruption, the ignorance and the stupidity of the kings and nobles, clergymen and monks of his time. This influence forms an antithesis to that of Thomas a Kempis, and the mystic movement of which he was the representative, because Erasmus, although a pious and true Christian, laid more stress on higher intellectual education than on quiet devotion. And, finally, his influence was quite another than

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 172 that of Luther, Calvin and Knox, because he looked at the corruption and the depravity of his time with another eye than the great Reformers. The Reformers looked at corruption as did the prophets and Apostles-from the guilty side of sin and depravity; it aroused their indignation; they preached conversion, and humiliation before God; and their theme was the duty of all creatures to glorify God. Erasmus looked at corruption and depravity from the side of its stupidity, its helplessness, its natural consequences, and it aroused his humor and his satire; his preaching was against the foolishness of sin; and his aim was more at morality than at religion; more at a humanistic reform than at a religious reformation. His eye was more on the innumerable relations between man and man in human society, than on the depths of the human heart, facing his relation to Almighty God. How far he introduced his manifold knowledge of Greece and Rome, his humor and his satire into English literature, we can only presume or conjecture in a general way, and the investigation of this question we must leave to monographs on the subject, for which there is abundant room.

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Chapter XIX The First English Book on America a Translation from the Dutch

More than one printer at Antwerp in the beginning of the 16th century published English books, and found a market in England, where book printing still was in the period of its first beginning. We know, for instance, that Gerard Leeu, who first had a printing office at Gouda, later came to Antwerp and printed some English books, and that the well-known printer, Jan van Doesburgh, at Antwerp, printed ‘The fifteen Tokens’ in 1505; ‘A Gest of Robin Hode’ in 1515; ‘The life of Virgilius’ in 1520, and ‘The Story of Mary van Nymwegen’ in 1520. One of the pupils of this Jan van Doesburgh was Laurent Andrewe, who, after having, like Caxton, learned book printing in the Netherlands, settled in the year 1527 at London. During his abode in the Netherlands he had learned the Dutch language, and so he was able to translate some books from the Dutch into the English, translations which he then printed and published. So he published, as a translation from the Dutch, a little book entitled: ‘The Valuation of Gold and Silver,’ and another entitled: ‘The Art and Craft to know well to die.’ But the best known of all these translations is that of the Dutch book: ‘Die Reise van Lissabone,’ published in 1508, which he translated in 1520 and published with

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 174 the title: ‘Of the New Landes.’ This was the first English book on America.1 This simple fact would be, of course, more curious than important, if it stood alone. But it does not stand alone. It is just one of the single stones which together form a building. A good architect does not fix his eyes on only one stone at a time, afterwards on another, and then on a third and a fourth, but his mind takes them all together, connected and well-placed, so as to form a building in which every one of them has its proper place. So everybody who is not blinded by ignorance and prejudice against the Netherlands, and who honestly seeks the truth of history in order to have, in this case, the right idea of Holland's influence on English language and Literature, will do as the good architect does. He takes all the facts together and in connection with each other, and then he is able to see what he was looking for. He sees something which touches the world's history, taking, as a rule, its course from East to West, and so from the Netherlands to England, especially in those centuries, in which from 1400 till 1700, we can say that the headquarters of the World's History are in the Low Countries. And once arrived at that point of view, he understands the story of the traveller who took with him from a foreign country one single stone of an old building, famous in history. To him that one stone spoke more than volumes. The case is same with the one single fact that the first English book on America was a translation from the Dutch. How was that possible? There must be something behind that isolated fact. Yes, there is behind that fact the earlier development, and the superior civili-

1 De Hoog, Studien, II, 34.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 175 zation in the Netherlands during the 15th and 16th centuries. A part of the world's history, and a very interesting part, the beginning of modern history and of nearly all the good ideas of our modern times, is behind this simple fact.

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Chapter XX Dutch Legends in England

Although in the middle ages legends were very numerous in the Netherlands, yet in the last part of the middle ages and in the beginning of modern history, the time in which Holland played its great part in the world's history, legends lost their general interest. The mass of the people did not look at legends from their literary side, but turned away from them as from popish superstitions. The great problems of reform in church, in state and in society got hold of the heart and of the intellect. The struggle for liberty from feudal oppression and from ecclesiastical persecution, in which so many thousands sacrificed their lives, made them lose sympathy for the legendary stories of the mediaeval church and only in those parts of the country where Catholicism remained intact and undisputed did legends retain their popularity. Yet, with the ‘popish superstitions’ the fundamental dogmas of Christianity were not abandoned, but rather restored to their full power. The sturdy men and women of the sixteenth century believed in the fall of man, in the perverseness of human nature, in the reality of the devil, and in a world of evil spirits who influenced human affairs, in regeneration and conversion by confession of sin, and in reconciliation with their heavenly Father by the sufferings and death of Christ. Yet the imagination of the people

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 177 produced some new legends of a peculiar character, although these few legends originated in the Roman Catholic parts of the country, and showed some Catholic ideas. We have at least one, which was printed in several editions, of which that of 1608 was entitled: ‘Een schoone Historie ende een zeer wonderlÿke ende waerachtige geschiedenis van Marike van Nimwegen, hoe zÿ meer dan seven jaren met den Duyvel woonde en leefde’ - (A beautiful story and very miraculous and true narrative of Mary of Nimwegen; how she lived with the Devil for more than seven years). As early as the year 1520, after one of the first Dutch editions, an English translation of this legend was printed by Jan van Doesburgh at Antwerp. The heroine of this story is Mary, the niece of a priest, who once sent her to Nimwegen to shop. Surprised by the approach of evening, she tried to stay over night with her aunt. But this termagant woman refused to let her stay, and chased her out of her house. In the middle of the night Mary was seduced by the Devil Moenen (Daemon), who promised to teach her the seven arts. With him she travelled to Bois la Due and Antwerp and lived for seven years a life of vice. Finally she repented, and tried to flee from the Devil, but he grasped her, took her with him high in the air, and threw her down on the earth, but the holy Virgin saved her life. She was received by her uncle, the priest, and died after many deeds of repentance in a monastery at Mastricht.1 It is quite possible that more such stories written in the Netherlands, might have been translated into English, and so have become part of English literature. Further investigation might reveal new relationships.

1 W. de Hoog, Studien, II, 34.

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Chapter XXI Jest Books and Anecdotes (Fool-literature) - Howleglass (Ulenspiegel)

Jest books and anecdotes have played a remarkable part in the literature of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In his ‘Studies on the literary relations between England and Germany,’ Charles H. Herford has a very interesting chapter on the subject. In this chapter he shows how the stimulus for this ‘fool-literature’ of jests and anecdotes came from the Italian Renaissance; how from Italy this movement went to Germany, from Germany to the Netherlands, and how the most famous jest books were translated from the Dutch into French as well as into English, and finally how in England and. Scotland this kind of book was looked at. The humanistic movement of the Renaissance opened not only the stores of all the wit and humor, the satires, the jests and the anecdotes of the Greek and Roman literature, but was as well the stimulus for literary men in western Europe to enrich their literature with the stories that lived among the people and with the jokes and anecdotes that were retold from generation to generation. During the late mediaeval time certain typical figures, often a priest or a monk, became the protagonists of these anecdotes. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when democracy arose, when free cities grew rapidly in population and in wealth, and

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 179 when all kinds of industry were rising, it was especially the class distinction which became the inexhaustible source of jests and anecdotes. A school teacher, a village preacher, a tailor, an innkeeper, a shoemaker or a blacksmith, a peasant, a miller or a barber, were alternately made the butts of popular wit, while the hero of many stories of that kind was often one or the other popular citizen who had got some reputation for wit amongst his fellow citizens. Among those personalities, around whose names have been collected a large number of jokes and anecdotes, written down in special books by which they got an immortality of their own, there are in Germany, for instance, Amis, the Kalemberger, Rausch, Markoff and Ulenspiegel, especially the last. ‘Amis is the German counterpart of of Canterbury; the Kalemberger is the facetious parish priest, who outwits his parishioners, makes game of his bishop, and extracts unintended bounties from his patron; Rausch, the young novice in the convent, who lays traps for the friar and the cook; Markhoff, the foul but witty boor, who paralyzes the wisdom of Solomon with keen rejoinders, and his modesty with the tricks of an unclean animal; Ulenspiegel, the knavish peasant who retaliates on the haughty citizens with strokes in which the literature of the ‘Swank’ probably reaches its acme of fatuous insolence. In these homely, yet vivid figures, and particularly in Ulenspiegel, the best known and the most purely national of all, the low life of the later Middle Ages in Germany lives before us; we hurry to and fro between tavern and workshop, highway and market-place, stable and scullery. Every line of Ulenspiegel vividly records the essential qualities of the society which made a hero of him; its gross appe-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 180 tites, its intellectual insensibility, its phlegmatic good humour, its boisterous delight in all forms of physical energy and physical prowess, its inexhaustible interest in the daily events of the bodily life, and the stoutness of nerve which permitted it to find uproarous enjoyment in mere foulness of stench. The whole interest of Ulenspiegel for us is social, not literary; all his jests together would scarcely yield a grain of Attic salt; we could not read the book but for the light which it throws upon a society which could and did.’1 ‘The first extant versions of Ulenspiegel, says Herford, take us to Strassburg, where in 1515 the earliest known editions, and in 1519 that till recently regarded as such and attributed to Murner, were published. From Strassburg it passed to Angsburg (ed. 1540) and Erfurt (ed. 1532-38) and Northwards to Cologne (Servais Kruffter's undated edition), thence to Antwerp (undated ed. 1520-30) and from Antwerp to Paris and London.’2 ‘The Antwerp edition - a canto containing about one-half the stories of the original - was the basis of the French version of 1532 and its successors, and of the English version, printed probably between 1548 and 1560 by William Copland.’3 This English version, translated from the Dutch, was entitled ‘Howleglass - Here beginneth a merye jest of a man called Howleglass, and of many marvelous thinges and jestes that he did in his lyffe.’ It was therefore not the German but the Dutch Ulenspiegel which was introduced into England, and this Dutch version differed very much from the Ger-

1 Charles H. Herford, Studies in the literary relations of England and Germany, Cambridge, 1886. 2 Ibid, 285. 3 Ibid.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 181 man, as far as many things were left out and one new chapter brought in, viz., ‘How Howleglass answered the man who asked him about the way.’1 Besides this, the English version contained a chapter with verses entitled ‘How Howleglass came to a scholar to make verses with hym to the use of reason.’2 Neither in England nor in Scotland did the Ulenspiegel, under his new name of Howleglass, find sympathy among the strong religious people of the Protestants of that time. But at least in England, under the reign of the not very religious Queen Elizabeth, and under the merry-making Stuarts, existed all the time a strong party, which was humanistic rather than religious, in the eyes of which Howleglass found more favor, so that, as Herford says, he ‘gravitated at once to the class of native jesters,’ lost all foreign associations, and became an inseparable member of the Brotherhood of Scogins and Skeletons, Robin Goodfellows and Robin Hoods, and his history took its place in the library of Captain Cox, etc.3 On the contrary, in Scotland the name of Howleglass ‘became a taunt, if not an insult, and was intruded into the most acrid region of the polemical vocabulary.’4 The land of John Knox seemed not to be the best country for Howleglass.

1 In Dutch, Hoe Ulenspieghel anworde eenen man die nae den wech vraghede.’ Herford, p. 286. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid, 288. 4 Ibid, 287.

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Chapter XXII Hadrianus Junius, 1511-1575

‘Next to Erasmus, the most learned man in Europe,’ that is what the well known philologist, Lipsius of Leyden, said about Hadrianus Junius. Another, viz., Lucas Fruterius, called him ‘aeterni felix successor Erasmi’ (the happy successor of the immortal Erasmus), and several others made a comparison between Junius and the great scholar of Rotterdam. And, indeed, there is some reason for comparing these two great humanists of European fame. They had in common (1) the same devotion to the revival of Greek and Roman literature, (2) the same attitude towards the religious movement of their time in keeping themselves outside of the terrible struggle, and (3) the same international life and international significance in their work. We know that Erasmus spent about seven years in England. Junius as well - strangely enough - lived about seven years in England, and dedicated some of his works successively to King Edward VI, Queen ‘Bloody Mary’ and Queen Elizabeth. Was Erasmus invited to England by one of his pupils, the young Lord Mountjoy, Junius was invited to Britain by Bonerus, the Bishop of London. To Erasmus were offered lucrative positions by several European sovereigns and Prelates; Junius was tutor to the son of King Frederic II of Denmark; the University of Rostock offered him a professorship, and the King of , as well as the King of , offered him lucrative positions. Erasmus published numerous

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Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 183 works to foster the revival of classic literature; Junius' list of publications, among which we find a great number of Greek and Latin authors, amounts to the number of forty-two. A young man of twenty-five years at the time when Erasmus died, the fame of this great compatriot must have been a stimulus for Junius to follow in his steps. And although Junius studied philosophy and medicine at the university, and later, in order to make a living, always practiced as a physician, yet he devoted the greater part of his life to the study of languages and literature; all his books are on philological subjects; and his European fame is that of a philologist. It often happens in history that a man, after the short years of his life in the University gets his degree in one branch of knowledge, and later produces his best works in another branch. The great philologist, Franciscus Junius, the father of comparative philology (not a relative of Hadrianus Junius), took his degree in theology, and in our own time the Rev. W.W. Skeat, although a clergyman, gave us the great etymological dictionary of the English language. For the real scholar it means little how he is labelled at the end of his short college life. What distinguished Erasmus from Junius was (1) that none of the writings of Junius, because of the special character of his work, became as popular as the Praise of Folly and the Colloquies, (2) that in Erasmus we find a decidedly Christian humanism, while in Junius the humanist stands so much in the foreground that the Christian nearly disappears altogether. Hadrianus Junius, whose original Dutch name was Adriaen de Jongh, was born in the year 1511 at Hoorn, one of the old cities on the Zuyder Sea, studied at the Latin school at Haarlem, and later at the Uni-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 184 versity of Louvain. At Louvain he studied philosophy and medicine, and after two years he went to Germany and later to Italy, where in the year 1540, at Bologna, he got the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Medicine. From Italy he went to Paris to take the courses of some famous professors in medicine. About the year 1543 - the exact date is unknown - the Bishop of London, Edmund Bonner, invited him to cross the Channel and to live in England. Soon afterwards Junius became the family physician of the Duke of Norfolk at Kenninghall, near Norwich, and at the same time the tutor of the Duke's son. In 1547, however, his protector fell into disgrace with King Henry VIII, and was beheaded, and Junius lost not only his office but also the property, including books and manuscripts, which he had with him. After this disaster, he became the physician of a noble lady, and we know that at that time he was much esteemed both as a physician and as a scholar, for he received several calls. To the new King, Edward VI (1557-1553), he dedicated his Lexicon Graeco-Latinum, and this lexicon was one of Junius' most important works, which made his name immortal in the field of lexicography. He added more than six thousand words to the best Greek dictionary existing at that time. What that meant for the study and the fostering of Greek literature everybody can easily understand. But now his heart was longing for his native country, and after an abode of more than six years in England, he went back to Holland, probably in the year 1550. Four years later we find him again in England, under the reign of Bloody Mary (1553-1558), and after this queen married Philip II of Spain, Junius wrote a poem entitled ‘Philippeis sive Epithalamium in

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Philippi et Mariae nuptias, which was printed at London in 1554, and dedicated to Queen Mary and Philip. Several years later in the year 1568, Junius was in England for the third time, now dedicating one of his works, entitled Eunapius Sardianus, printed at Antwerp, to Queen Elizabeth (1550-1603). The rest of his life Junius spent in the Netherlands, first as physician and as rector of the Latin school at Haarlem, later as historiographer of the States of Holland. In this capacity he wrote his ‘Batavia,’ or a history of Holland and its cities. In this book he gives his well-known narrative of the invention of book printing by Koster at Haarlem, a narrative which since that time has been one of the arguments in favor of Koster and against Gutenberg of Maintz as the inventor of printing. During the siege of Haarlem in 1573, Junius was present, but he fled in time to Delft to assist Prince William, the Silent, as physician. Nearly all his books and manuscripts, however, were destroyed by the Spaniards after the surrender of Haarlem. The next year, 1574, after the conquest of Middelburg by the sea-beggars of the Prince, Junius, on the recommendation of the Prince, was made physician of that city, but the next year, 1575, he died, and was buried in the great church, where a monument indicates the place of his grave. A biography of Junius was written by P. Scheltema - ‘Diatribe in Hadriani Junii vitam, ingenium, familiam, merita literaria. Amsterdam, 1836. One of the best articles on Junius is that of A.G. Hoffman in Ersch und Gruber. A list of the works of Junius is given in the Dutch Biographical Dictionary of Van der Aa, containing not less than forty-two , all written in Latin. A great number of his

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 186 works are editions and commentaries of Greek and Latin authors, among whom we find Seneca, Homer, Juvenalis, Horatius, Virgilius, Martialis, Plautus and Plinius. Very few of his works, except the ‘Batavia’ and the ‘Emblemata,’ were translated into Dutch. The Emblems were translated also into French. One of his most important works in the field of Lexicography was his ‘Nomenclator omnium rerum propria nomina variis linguis explicata indicans.’ Antwerp, 1567. This work was often reprinted, and in 1585, in London, was published an English edition, with the title ‘The Nomenclator or Remembrancer of Adrianus Junius, Physician, divided in two tomes, containing proper names and apt termes for all things under their convenient titles, which within a few leaves do follow. Written by the said Adr. Jun., in Latine, Greeke, French and other foreign tongues, and now in English by John Higins - with a full supplie of all such words as the last enlarged edition afforded.’1 As a poet, he is known for several poems in Latin, brought together long after his death in one volume, as ‘Poematum liber primus,’ in 1598. Continuing the work of Erasmus, he published ‘Adagiorum ab Erasmo omissorum centuriae octo cum dimidia,’ Basel 1558; reprinted in 1598. His influence in introducing the riches of Greek and Roman literature into the national literature of several countries, and in fostering the study of Greek and Latin, has been appreciated by the best philologists from his time till the present day. And not the least part of that influence he exerted in England, where during seven years the circles of the higher class at London and at Norwich enjoyed the privilege of his personal acquaintance and conversation.

1 The ‘Nomenclator’ has been reprinted at least in ten editions: in 1557, 1567, 1576, 1596 at Antwerp, in 1590 at Frankfort, in 1606 at Paris, also a French translation in 1606, in 1611 and 1619 at Geneve, in 1671 at Bois le due, in 1585 at London.

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Chapter XXIII The First Complete English Bible Printed at Antwerp, 1527-1535, as a Missionary Work of the Dutch. Miles Coverdale in the Service of Jacob van Meteren.

The church of the Middle Ages did not give the bible into the hands of every man. The rhymed-bible of Jacob van Maerlant in the Dutch language, and - hundred years later - the bible of Wicliff in English, began a new movement, and the written copies of these translations came into many hands, but into the reach of the great mass of people the bible came first after the invention of printing, when it was translated and printed in English, Dutch, French, German and other languages. Since that time the printed bible in the vernacular of the people has had an influence on the language and the literature of every Protestant nation, which hardly can be overestimated. The language, the expressions, the stories, the style of the bible became part of the life and the thought of the people, and got a place in the very heart of the nations. The bible became an important element in the development of language and the literature. Therefore, the translation and printing of the bible has been in the history of every nation an event of importance to its language and its literature. In the Netherlands, the first complete bible in the Dutch language was that of Liesveld, printed at Ant-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 188 werp in the year 1526. Luther's bible in the was completed and printed at first in 1534. And the first English bible, commonly called the bible of Coverdale, was translated and printed during the years 1527-1535, and consequently published in 1535. It was in the Netherlands that this first bible in the English language was translated, printed and given to the English nation. A wealthy merchant at Antwerp called Jacob van Meteren, the father of the famous historian Immanuel van Meteren, came often to London, and, being a zealous and pious Protestant, wished to do something for the Kingdom of Christ among the English people. Therefore, he took into his service a learned Englishman by the name of Miles Coverdale, who, at that time, happened to be at Antwerp, in order that Coverdale should translate the bible into English. Van Meteren did not ask a translation from the original Hebrew and Greek languages of the Old and New Testament, for which work certainly Coverdale would not have been the right man, but the originals from which he had to translate, and which he could use, were the Dutch version, and the Latin, called the Vulgate, and, furthermore, Jacob van Meteren paid all the expenses for having the whole work printed. His purpose in this expensive work was a missionary one, as he says ‘tot groote bevordering van het Rÿcke Christi in Engelandt’ (to the great fostering of the Kingdom of Christ in England). Before the publishing of this ‘bible of Coverdale,’ several parts of the bible had been printed, for instance, in ‘The Golden Legend’ of Caxton, and some other parts, as the Pentateuch, and even the New Testament of Tyndale, were printed in Germany.

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But as a complete English bible, this work of Van Meteren, and Coverdale was the first. About this story of Van Meteren we read in the Encyclopaedia Brittannica, ‘Mr. Henry Stevens has pointed out that in a biographical notice of Immanuel van Meteren, appended to his history of Belgium by Simon Ruytinck, the latter states that Jacob van Meteren, the father of Immanuel, had manifested great zeal in producing at Antwerp a translation of the bible into English ‘for the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ in England, and for this purpose he employed a certain learned scholar named Miles Coverdale.’ As Van Meteren had been taught the art of printing in his youth, it seems very probable that he exercised his zeal in the matter by undertaking the cost of printing the work as well as that of remunerating the translator. The woodcuts in Coverdale's bible, but not the type, have been traced back to James Nicolson, printer in St. Thomas' hospital in 1535, and Mr. Stevens connects him with the book and with Van Meteren in the following manner: ‘The London book binders and stationers, finding the market filled with foreign books, especially Testaments, made complaint in 1533-34, and petitioned for relief; in consequence of which a statute was passed compelling foreigners to sell their editions entire to some London stationer, in sheets, so that the binders might not suffer. This new law was to come into operation about the beginning of 1535. In consequence of this law, Jacob van Meteren, as his bible approached completion, was obliged to come to London to sell the edition. We have reason to believe that he sold it to James Nicolson of Southwark, who not only bought the entire edition, but the woodcuts, and probably the punches and type; but, if the latter, they were

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 190 doubtless lost in transmission as they have never turned up in any shape since. All the copies of the Coverdale bible in the original condition, as far as we know, have appeared in English binding, thus confirming this law of 1534. (Caxton Celebration Catal, p. 88-89). It is now evident that Coverdale refers partly, at least to Jacob van Meteren when he says in his dedication: ‘Trusting in His infinite goodness that He would bring my simple and rude labour herein to good effect, therefore, as the Holy Ghost moved other men, to do the cost hereof, so was I boldened in God to labour in the same.’ ‘The discovery of Ruytinck's statement seems to show conclusively that Coverdale completed his translation, after Wolsey's fall, at the cost of Van Meteren, and at Antwerp instead of Cambridge.’ ‘The first of all printed English is a small folio volume measuring 11 3/4 by 8 inches, and bears the title: “Biblia, The Bible, that is, the Holy Scripture of the Olde and New Testament, faithfully and truly translated out of Douche (Dutch) and Latyn into Englyshe MDXXXV,” with the texts 2. Thes. iii-1, Col. iii-16, Josh. i-8 underneath. The colophon is: Prynted in the yeare of our Lord MDXXXV, and fynished the fourth daye of October.’ The title page was, however, for some reason cancelled immediately, and only one perfect copy of it is known. The new title page with the same date, 1535, merely says: ‘faythfully translated into Englyshe,’ omitting the words ‘and truly’ and ‘out of Douche and Latyn.’ Encycl. Britt. in voce: English Bible. The English publisher thought it unnecessary to mention so exactly that this bible was translated from the Dutch and the Latin, nor did he give a single word to the real story of the translation. Apparently he looked at the matter from the point of view of a business man.

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Chapter XXIV The Emblem Books, Van der Noot, Erasmus, Hadrianus Junius, Whitney, Plantyn, Jacob Cats.

The word ‘emblem,’ in Latin, ‘emblema,’ is from the Greek verb, ‘emballein,’ to lay or throw in, and so emblem means the representation of some idea, thought or story; for instance, a crown is called the emblem of royalty, the balance is the emblem of justice, a scepter the emblem of power. Books containing nothing else but a number of those emblems, illustrations, wood cuts or copperplates, with mottos at the head and an explanatory poem underneath, became very popular in the sixteenth century, and this is easily understood. The Rennaissance brought the wisdom for life which was found in the riches of Greek and Roman Literature, not in a systematic and philosophical form - the time for a modern philosophy had not yet come, and the philosophical system of the Reformation was too much different from, and opposed to that of the classic humanism - but in the didactic form of adages, proverbs, ‘dictes and sayings,’ or, however, they may have been called. Caxton's first book, printed in England, was the ‘dictes and sayinges;’ Erasmus' Adages, in the first edition containing only 800, grew in the later editions to the number of 4,000; Hadriamus Junius, in his volume of Adages added to them several hundreds not yet found in Erasmus. As soon as the art of printing was advanced far enough to reproduce illustrations; painters and en-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 192 gravers, pupils of the schools of Marc Antonio, Albrecht Durer, Lucas van Leyden, found a new field for their art in producing pictures with which the printers might illustrate proverbs and adages; poets then wrote their explanations in verses, and so the emblems were born. What case-books are for the law student today, the emblem-books were for general education, and especially for the development of wisdom in life, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The luxurious editions of the best authors, illustrated with the best pictures, and to be found in the family library of all wealthy people are today what the emblem books were during the first centuries of modern history. And those whose refined taste and spiritual aristocracy disliked the vulgarity of the Howleglass (Ulenspiegel) literature, found their full satisfaction in the luxury of emblem books. The prevailing life system of the nations in Europe was still that of the Christian Church, and this system was soon explained more clearly, more logically, and more elaborately by the Reformers than ever before. For the foundations of this system as a whole all the reviving literature of Greece and Rome was of little or no value. But for the common wisdom of daily human life, the heathen literature of Rome and Greece produced a richness of scattered and separate proverbs and devices, adages and practical lessons, parables and stories, which the great mass of the rising democracy enjoyed immensely. Even Theodore Beza, the intimate friend and successor of Calvin, saw this blessing which there was in the wisdom of the old classic world and published his ‘Portraits and Emblems’ in accordance with what people needed and enjoyed along that line for their social life. Soon the emblem-literature got an illustrious

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature t.o. 192

JACOB CATS. Kopergravure door Michael Natalis naar P. Dubordieu.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 193 name all over Europe. ‘With Andreas Alciatus,’ says Green,1 ‘in 1522, we may date the rise of the emblem-literature and its popularity; with Paolo, Giovio, Bocchius and Sambucus, its continuance; with Jacob Cats, its glory, that still shines and has lately been renewed.’2 In England this emblem-literature was not less popular than in the other parts of Europe, and here we find again the influence of Holland on English literature. The first emblem-book in English was the ‘Theatre of voluptuous worldlings,’ of Jan van Der Noot, the Dutch nobleman, whose influence will be treated more elaborately in connection with Spenser. It seems that Henry Green, in his beautiful work on Geffrey Whitney's ‘Choice of Emblemes,’ did not know Van der Noot at all, probably because the question Spenser-Van der Noot at that time was not yet as prominent as in our present time. But other English authors, as for instance, Charles H. Herford, in his Studies on the literary relations between Germany and England (p. 369), recognizes as a mere matter of fact that Van der Noot gave to England the first English emblem-book.3 It was printed at London in the year 1569. One of the most famous English emblem-books, however, is that of Geffrey Whitney, entitled ‘A Choice of Emblemes’ ‘and other devices for the moste parte gathered out of sundrie writers Englished and Moralized and divers newly devised,’ ‘Imprinted at Leyden in the house of Christopher Plantyn, by Francis Raphelengius, 1586.’ This remarkable book, one of the most artistic

1 Henry Green, Whitney's Choice of Emblemes. A facsimile reprint with explanations. London. Covell Reeve & Co., 1860. 2 Green alludes here to the English editions of Emblems of Cats, in 1862. 3 Green, Whitney, p. 268. August Vermeulen, Leven en Werken van Jonkheer Jan van der Noot. Antwerp, 1899, p. 47.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 194 examples of book printing during the sixteenth century, combining its 248 wood cuts with the same number of devices and poems, has been reprinted in facsimile and provided with elaborate introductions and explanations, by Henry Green, London, Lovell Reeve & Co., 1866. Little is known about the author of this splendid work, as it lies before us in the beautiful edition of Mr. Green, an edition which makes the name of Mr. Green immortal in the history of literature. But what we, after the researches of Mr. Green, know about Geffrey Whitney, brings him and his work into immediate contact with the Netherlands. The work is dedicated to ‘the right honorable my singular good Lord and Maister Robert Earle of Leicester, etc., Lorde Lieutenant and Captaine General of her Majesties forces in the lowe countries.’ It is ‘imprinted at Leyden in the house of Christopher Plantyn, by Francis Raphelengius, 1585.’ The press of Plantyn, at Leyden, was at that time one of the most famous in the world, first at Antwerp, later at Leyden. The ‘French historian, De Thou, on a journey to Flanders and Holland, in 1576, visited the workshops of Plantyn and saw twenty-seven presses in action, although, as he remarks, this famous printer was embarrassed in his affairs; but carrying out his well known motto, Labor et Constantia (work and steadiness), he re-established his fortunes. The catalogue of Plantyn's publications compiled by M.M.A. de Backer and Ch. Buelens gives the titles of 1030 works which had their origin from his types and presses.’1 From the time when Christopher Plantyn commenced his business at Antwerp, in 1555, until his death at Leyden, in 1589, there issued from his press

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 195 nearly thirty editions of the chief emblem-books of the day, all executed with the utmost care, some possessing great beauty of execution and one or two equal, if not superior, to any similar work of that age. In considerable part it is due to the coöperation of Christopher Plantyn and his son-in-law, Francis Raphelengius, that the poems of Geffrey Whitney have been preserved in so splendid form. Of the 248 wood-cuts in Whitney's work, at least 225 were used before by Plantyn in the emblem-books of Andreas Alciatus - the founder of the emblem-literature - Claude Paradin, John Sambucus, Hadrianus Junius and Gabriel Faerni, all emblem-books published by Plantyn before Whitney's ‘Choice of Emblemes’ and only twenty-three is the number of the ‘divers newly devised.’1 Among the five sources of Whitney's work, just mentioned, we see the name of Hadrianus Junius, the famous Dutch humanist, whose emblem-book was eight times reprinted by Plantyn, a book from which Whitney derived twenty emblems. Some of the intimate friends of Whitney are the Englishmen, Philip and Edmund Spenser, as well as some of the most learned Dutchmen. ‘A fast friend of Whitney, Jan Douza, the elder, was the first who presided over the newly-founded University at Leyden; another friend, Bonaventura Vulcanius, was the Greek Professor at the same time; and Justus Lipsius for thirteen years, until 1590, filled the chair of history. Raphelengius, too, by whom the ‘Choice of Emblemes’ was imprinted, had taught Greek in Cambridge when Whitney was a student, or shortly before, and thus we have all the elements of the acquaintance and friendship between our poet and several of the eminent men by whom Leyden was adorned.2

1 Green, Whitney, p. 268. 1 Ibid, p. 266. 2 Green, Ibid, Introduction, p. LIV.

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Jan Douza, Bonaventura Vulcanius, and Peter Colvins of Bruges, wrote poems on the Emblems of Whitney. So we find in Whitney's life and in his work one of the best links between the most learned and literary men of England, and of the Netherlands, during the last half of the sixteenth century. If Van der Noot gave to England its first English emblem-book, Whitney's Choice of Emblemes, probably one of the most beautiful in English Literature, was written under the suggestions of his Dutch friends and printed at the press of Plantyn.1 Half a century later, another English Emblembook was published, mentioned by Green,2 as Heywood's Pleasant Dialogue, etc., extracted from Jacob Catsius, 1637. Now Jacob Cats (1577-1660) was the well-known and most popular poet of the Netherlands, about whose life and work there are articles or chapters in any book on the history of Dutch Literature. During more than 150 years the poetical works of ‘Father Cats’ were found in every Dutch home, providing the Dutch families with that abundance of wisdom of life for which this prince of didactic poetry has an immortal fame. ‘Britain,’ says Green, ‘can advance no early claims to originality in the production of emblem-books, and scarcely improved the works of this kind, which she touched upon and translated, yet she took no inconsiderable interest in emblem-literature; and during the century, beginning with Whitney and ending with Arwaker - if we except Jacob Cats, who died in 1660 in his eightythird year, and who to this day is spoken of familiarly yet affectionately in Holland as “Vader Cats” -

1 About the life and works of Whitney see more elaborate treatment in Green's edition of the Choice of Emblemes. 2 Green, Ibid, Introduction, p. XXII.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 197 our country may be said to have marched at least with equal steps by the side of other European nations.’1 As far as Jacob Cats is concerned, Green says: ‘A splendid tribute to his excellence has lately been supplied by the publication of ‘Moral Emblems from Jacob Cats and Robert Farlie,’ London, 1862. ‘The beautiful illustrations by John Leighton and the translation by the editor Richart Pigot, are contributions in all respects worthy of emblem-art and deserve the admiration of all lovers of the old proverbial philosophy and literature.’2 During the eighteenth century the Emblems of ‘father Cats’ were so well known in England that the famous painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his youth took delight in studying them. In the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, article on Jacob Cats, we read: ‘His book of Emblems was a great favorite with Sir Joshua Reynolds in his childhood, being often styled The Household Bible.’ Those emblems certainly must have inspired the young Reynolds with love for pictures representing fine ideas and lessons, and nobody knows how much they may have contributed to the wonderful inspiration which in later time made a great painter out of the emblem-studying boy. One more emblem-book, printed in the Netherlands and later translated into English, is mentioned by Green - viz., Hugo Hermann's Pia desideria, Gemitus, Vota, animae poenitentiae, etc. (Pious aspirations, Groans, Vows, and Sighs of a penitent soul, etc.), published at Antwerp in 1628 with wood cuts; and again in 1632 with Bolswert's beautiful copperplates. It was Englished by Edmund Arwaker, M.A., in 1686, and illustrated with forty-seven copperplates; but the omissions and alterations of the original, render it scarcely deserving the name of a translation.3

1 Green, Introduction, p. XXII. 2 Ibid., XXIII. 3 Green, Introduction, XXII.

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Chapter XXV George Gascoigne - His Abode in the Netherlands and His Works - His ‘Glasse of Government’ and the Latin School-dramas in Holland - Macropedius - Gnaphaeus.

It was during the winter of the years 1573-1574 that a tall English gentleman, whom his English friends called ‘long George,’ lived in the little Dutch city of Delft. The citizens of Delft called him ‘de groene hopman’ (the green captain), and for this reason, in later time he alluded to himself as ‘the green knight.’1 Prince William the Silent, at that time had his residence at Delft, and the green captain came especially thither to see the Prince, who received him very kindly, although the citizens of Delft did not trust the adventurous and strange Englishman, who had received a letter from the camp of the enemy at the Hague, written by a lady, with whom he apparently stood in pretty intimate connection. But the captain explained the matter to the satisfaction of the Prince, and everything was all right. That ‘green captain’ was George Gascoigne, the poet-soldier, a pioneer of Elizabethan literature, an immediate precursor of Philip Sydney, Edmund Spenser and Shakespeare, the later author of the first famous English satire, ‘The Steelglass,’ of the beautiful elegie, ‘The Complaint of Philomele’ and of all those

1 See ‘The Fruite of Fetters - with the Complaint of the greene Knight,’ etc.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 199 wonderful stories and love songs nowadays connected with his name. The reason why we find him at Delft as ‘the green captain’ is to be found partly in his unlucky education, in his independent character, in his geniality, with such an amount of self-reliance as seduced him to imprudence and dissipation, with the consequence that his life seemed to be destined to become a failure, and his great capacities likely not to be recognized, and partly in the fame of the wealthy Netherlands with their attractiveness for foreign Protestants who desired to assist in the struggle for toleration and freedom of thought. ‘He was born - probably about 1535 - of a good Bedfordshire family and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge’; he left the University without a degree, entered Gray's Inn - one of the well-known Law Schools at London - in 1555, and represented the county of Bedford in Parliament, 1557-1559. ‘His youthful extravagances led to debt, disgrace and disinheritance by his father, Sir John Gascoigne.’1 ‘In the midst of his youth, he tells us, he determined to abandone all vaine delightes and to return unto Greye's Inne, there to undertake againe the studdie of the common Lawe.’ And after having paid his fines and performed what was asked from him he was accepted. ‘He took a further step towards reform by marrying a rich widow, whose children by her first marriage brought a suit in 1568 for the protection of their interests. The action seems to have been amicably settled, and he remained on good terms with his stepson, Nicholas Breton, who was himself a poet of some note. But it is to be feared that as a man of middle age Gascoigne returned to the evil course of his youth, if we are to

1 The Cambridge History of English Literature, III, 228.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 200 accept the evidence of his autobiographical poem, Dan Barthelemew of Bathe.’1 In 1572 he was prevented from taking his seat in Parliament in consequence of a petition in which he was charged with all kinds of crooked things. The obvious intention of the petition was to prevent Gascoigne from pleading privilege against his creditors, and securing immunity from arrest.’2 About that time, at least in the same year, 1572, Gascoigne made up his mind to leave his fatherland. In trouble, disappointed, not recognized; like Lord Byron two centuries later, he resolved to go abroad, and, like a Childe Harolde of the sixteenth century, he became enamored of two ideals, viz., of love and of liberty. As Byron poured out his soul in songs of love, and fought for the liberty of Greece, so Gascoigne describes himself as ‘professing armes in the defence of God's truth’ in the Netherlands, and there at the same time a stream of glowing love-songs flowed from his pen, which alone were sufficient to assure immortality to his name. Before he went to the Netherlands, he had written only his translations, ‘Supposes’ and ‘Jocasta’ and perhaps - because at that time he seemed to live in the literature of the dramas - his ‘Glasse of Government,’ of which the source lay before him in the Acolastus of Gnapheus, accessible in an English translation dating from the year 1540. But during his abode in the Netherlands and after that during the few last years of his life - he died on the 7th of October, 1577 - the multitude of poems on different subjects flowed from his pen, which now lie before us in his complete works. From the very first day of his departure, the 19th

1 Ibid., 229. 2 Ibid., 230.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 201 of March, 1573, from Gravesend to Den Briel, his impressions were deep and interesting, as he describes them in his ‘Voyage into Hollande.’ For a poet, and a genius, who had lived all his life in the highest circles in England, with the people of the Court, and with those of the best literary circles of his time, and who was not at all acquainted with the terrible condition of the poor, desperate Protestant people in those days of the Duke of Alva, it was indeed a doubtful experiment to go to the Netherlands in order to join the desperate sea-beggars, robbed of everything, maddened by the cruelties of the Spaniards, accustomed to the roughness of their deadly warfare, and we are not at all surprised to find that from the first day on which he endured the dangers of the sea, till the last day on which he, in September, 1574, came back after having been for the last four months a prisoner of the Spaniards, this warfare and the life among those warriors was a disappointment to Gascoigne. On the other hand, when he came into personal contact with the Prince of Orange and his friends, he found a kindness, an idealism, a life of devotion and sacrifice to the best ideals, which gave satisfaction and consolation to the deepest longings of his soul, and we are not surprised to find in the midst of his often bitter ‘Fruits of war’ a poem which he began at Delft with lines like these:

‘Where good Guyllam of Nassau badde me be There needed I none other guyde but he.’1

Or in another place:

‘O noble Prince, there are too fewe like thee! If virtue wake, she watcheth in thy will, If justice live, then surely thou art hee,

1 The Fruits of War, Hansen, 99.

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If grace do growe, it groweth with thee still. O worthy Prince, would God I had the skill To write thy worth that men thereby might see How much they erre that speake amisse of thee.

‘The simple Sottes do coumpt thee simple, too, Whose like for witte our age hath seldome bredde, The rayling roges mistrust thou darest not do, As Hector did for whom the Grecians fledde, Although thou yet werte never seene to dredde. The slandrous tongues do say thou drinkest to much When God he knowes thy custome is not such.

‘But why do I in worthlesse verse devise To write his prayse that doth excell so far? He heard our greeves himself in gracious wise’ etc.

‘I could not leave that Prince in such distresse Which cared for me, and yet the cause much less.’1

These lines increase our knowledge both of the Prince and of Gascoigne. Such were the impressions that Gascoigne took with him to the court of Queen Elizabeth, about the Prince who was the leader of struggling Protestantism in Europe. From the time Gascoigne arrived at Den Briel in March, 1573, till the next winter, when we find him at Delft, he had served as a captain of the Sea-Beggars under Admiral Boisot. According to his own narrative in ‘The Fruits of War’2 he fought against the Spaniards in Zealand, defending Aardenburgh, ‘in the trench before Tergoes,’3 at the conquest of Fort Rammekens,4 then ‘our camp removed to Streine’ (Strÿen) and at last at the siege of Middelburg, the capital of Zealand, which surrendered Feb. 19, 1574. But during the siege of

1 Fruits of War, Stanza 99, 118-121. 2 Stanzas 95-114. 3 See J. Wagenaar - Historie, VI, p. 366 and 437. This was in June. 4 Wagenaar VI, 439. This was in August, under Admiral Boisot.

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Middelburg, which lasted for nearly two years, Gascoigne went to Delft,1 with the intention of going back to England, after having visited the Prince. But William of Orange made such an impression on Gascoigne, treated him so kindly, and gave him such new inspiration to fight for the cause of liberty and of Protestantism, that, after having ‘dwelt in Delft a winter's tyde,’2 Gascoigne returned to Zealand to fight on the side of the Sea-Beggars. The Prince himself came at that time to Zealand ‘to hunger Middelburg or make it yield,’ and Gascoigne once for three days fought along with the Sea-Beggars before Flushing, while every day the Prince from the pier looked at the fight. And when Mondragon, the Spanish commander, at Middelburg, at last (on February 19, 1574) surrendered, Gascoigne was in the city before Mondragon left:

‘And when Mountdragon might no more endure He came to talk and rendred all at last, With whom I was within the Citie sure, Before he went, and on his promisse past, So trust I had to thinke his fayth was fast. I dinde, and supt, and laye within the towne A daye before he was from thence ybowne.’3

The Prince of Orange gave to Gascoigne ‘three hundred guilders good above my pay,’ and ‘bad me bide till his abilitie might better gwerdon my fidelitie.’ Gascoigne needed very badly those three hundred guilders, and was much pleased, ‘much the more because they came uncraved, though not unneeded’ and ‘thereby my credite still was saved.’4 The Prince of Orange, himself from his youth accustomed to high

1 Stanza, 112, Fruits of War. 2 Stanza, 131. 3 Stanza, 140.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 204 expenses and luxury of life, understood perfectly the condition of Gascoigne, and had seen soon enough that Gascoigne was not a common soldier, but a highly civilized, social, courteous and literary man of attractive geniality. And when at last ‘a English newe relief came over sea,’ of which Edward Chester was the chief, then the Prince, with the consent of Chester, made Gascoigne ‘to take a band in charge,’ and soon afterwards, when the Spaniards for a second time started to besiege Leyden - this was the famous siege - we find Gascoigne with his band near Leyden in the ‘new begun fort Valkenburg.’1 But the Spaniards pressed upon them so badly that they fled towards the walls of Leyden, where Gascoigne with his band arrived in the evening. The citizens of Leyden, however, afraid of treason on the part of the English troops, did not open their gates and so the English were forced to surrender to the Spaniards. Wagenaar tells us, what Gascoigne himself does not mention, that thirty of those English troops refused to surrender and that those thirty were allowed to enter the city of Leyden.2 Anyhow, Gascoigne was made prisoner and after having been for four months as prisoner with the Spaniards, was sent back to England in September, 1574. So his endeavor to make a success as a soldier became a failure from start to finish, and we read his disappointment in his ‘Voyage into Holland’ as well as in his ‘Fruits of War.’ The only brilliant point in this whole affair is Gascoigne's attractiveness as a gentleman, his amiable sociability and courtesie, his noble character, which attracted not only the Prince of Orange but the Spanish officers as well. In Middelburg with Mondragon, and during the four months

4 Stanza, 142, Fruits of War. 1 Stanza 146, J. Wagenaar, VI, 483. 2 Wagenaar VI, 484.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 205 he was a prisoner, the Spanish officers treated him very kindly. And during his abode at Delft, when he got a letter from the Hague, at that time the residence of the Spanish general Valdez, this Spanish general was as courteous to him as was the Prince of Orange. Gascoigne had a lady friend living at the Hague, who wrote him a letter to Delft, for the bearer of which Valdez readily gave a passport. And in return the Prince gave him a passport to visit that lady at the Hague. Who that lady friend was we do not know. We know that Valdez himself also had a lady friend at the Hague by the name of Magdalena Moons,1 who was nothing more than his mistress. But whether she knew the lady friend of Gascoigne, or whether this had any connection with the courtesy of Valdez towards Gascoigne, we do not know. Whether that lady friend at the Hague was the subject of his hundredfold outpouring of love and devotion, in so many of his beautiful songs, we cannot decide. Once more, after his return to England, we find Gascoigne in the Netherlands, viz., in the year 1576, at Antwerp. On the 8th of October he left Paris, and arrived at Antwerp on the 22nd of that month. There he stayed for two weeks, and then returned to England. But in those two weeks one of the most dreadful events in the history of that city happened - an event known as the ‘Spoil of Antwerp’ by the Spaniards. And to Gascoigne we owe the narrative of that dreadful event, as from an eye witness.2 If we knew nothing about the author of ‘The Spoil of Antwerp’ except what he tells about his discussions

1 See R. Fruin, Verspreide Geschniften, VIII, 380-397.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 206 with the Spanish officers, we should immediately recognize Gascoigne as he appeared at Middelburg, at Delft, and as a prisoner in the Spanish camp.1 That all his misfortunes, his experiences, his adventures in the Netherlands made a deep impression on Gascoigne is easily understood, and may be felt through all the poems that were written after his first arrival at Den Briel. In the Netherlands also he learned the French language, as he tells us himself in his address to Queen Elizabeth before his ‘Tale of Hemetes,’ using the expression, ‘such frenche as I borrowed in Holland.’ From Erasmus he borrowed the device of his Fruits of War, which is: Bellum dulce inexpertis. But there is one work of Gascoigne which brings us still more directly into contact not only with Holland but immediately with Dutch literature, viz., his ‘Glasse of Government.’ A short explanation may make this clear, and is interesting enough, since Gascoigne deserves a special attention for his place in English Literature, as far as the development of the English drama is concerned. He was ‘the first to present in English dress a characteristic Italian comedy of intrigue’ in his ‘Supposes’ and in the ‘Bugbears,’ and he is the first who used the vernacular prose throughout a ‘prodigal son drama’ in his ‘Glasse of Government.’2 At that time there was a twofold movement - one, that of the Renaissance, more aristocratic, prevailing among the higher classes, favored by the Roman Catholic clergy, and bringing about a revival of Roman

2 On the authorship of this narrative see Edward Arber, An English Garner, VIII, 141, where we find a reprint of it with the documents showing Gascoigne to be the author. The objection made in the Cambridge History of English Literature, III, 235, that this narrative was at first printed anonymously, does not amount to much since the same happened with the Hundred Sundry Flowers. 1 ‘In 1602,’ says Arber, ‘an anonymously written play, based on the narrative, was published in London, under the title, ‘Alarum for London, or the Siege of Antwerp.’ An English Garner, VIII, 167. 2 Cambridge History of English Literature, V, p. 128.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 207 and Greek literature; and another one, that of the Reformation, more democratic, moving the masses of the rising democracy, religious in its character, bringing learning and education to the people with a decided tendency towards moral and religious reform. The artistocratic humanists of the Renaissance despised the vernacular, and used as much as possible the Latin language. The religious democrats of the awakened masses preferred the vernacular, as the only language fit for the education of the people. This twofold movement produced a twofold literature - one in Latin, and the other in the vernacular. Both showed a prevailing preference for dramatic poetry: the Renaissance producing a great number of Latin dramas, written for the most part by the heads of the Latin schools for the use of their students; the Democracy, with its numerous guilds or chambers of Rhetoric, producing an innumerable number of morality plays, destined to be shown in the streets, and on the market places of the cities, especially in the ‘land-jewels,’ the great festivities for the masses during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Now, there was no country where both the Renaissance and the Reformation became as strong as in the Netherlands. The community of the Brethren of Common Life, founded by Gerard Grote at Deventer, produced not only men like Wessel Gansfort, Rudolphus Agricola and Erasmus, as so many leaders of the Renaissance, but as well a Thomas a Kempis, who, with his Imitation of Christ, laid the mystic foundation of the Reformation in the awakening of personal religious devotion. In this beautiful community, with its pupils soon spread all over the Netherlands, we see both the movements of Renaissance and Reformation still united in perfect harmony, and we

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 208 hardly know which to admire more in these broad minded and plainly living men, their classic learning or their religious devotion. But the rapid development of democracy on one hand, and the conservatism of the Roman Catholic church on the other, brought about an antithesis between aristocracy and democracy, and made it soon impossible to keep those two movements of Renaissance and Reformation together. The poets of the Latin school dramas were quite different from the authors of the popular morality-plays, although both were more numerous in the Low Countries than anywhere else. In every city were found the Guilds of Rhetoric, producing their morality-plays in the Dutch vernacular; as well as Latin schools, where the Latin plays of Terentius, Seneca and Plautus soon proved to be too few in number as well as too heathen and immoral in their tendency. Consequently, new Latin dramas, in their literary form as polite as Terentius and Seneca, but in their subjects and tendency more Christian, were asked for. Biblical themes, as that of the Prodigal son, so often treated in the popular plays, were now taken up by the principals of the Latin schools for their new Latin dramas, and the tendency arose to give to the students a Christianized Terentius. Very numerous are the poets of those Latin school dramas in the Netherlands.1 Two of the most prominent among them were Guilielmus Gnapheus and Georgius Macropedius, and these two men bring us into immediate contact with Gascoigne as the author of ‘The Glasse of Government.’ Georgius Macropedius, whose Dutch name was Georg van Langveldt, was born in the year 1475 in

1 See J. te Winkel, De ontwikkelingsgang der Nederlandsche letterkunde, I, p. 274-278, and G. Kalff, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche letterkunde, III, p. 94-107.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 209 the neighborhood of the castle Langveldt, at the little village of Gemert, near Bois le duc. He got his education among the Brethren of Common Life, and his portrait shows him in their plain dress of the monasteries of that time. Probably he studied at the University of Louvain, and after that he became the principal of the school of the Brethren of Common Life at Bois le duc. Later we find him as rector or principal of the Latin school at Utrecht, where he stayed from 1535 till 1554. At last he returned to Bois le duc for his health, and there he died in July, 1558. He left us twelve Latin dramas, published during his lifetime, in 1553, in one volume, viz., Asotus, Lazarus, Joseph, Jesus Scholasticus, Adamus, Hypomene, Hecastus, Rebelles, Aluta, Petriscus, Andrisca and Bassarus.1 In the ‘Rebelles’ he especially treats the theme of the Prodigal Son, in the same way that later Gascoigne did in his Glasse of Government. Guilielmus Gnapheus, whose Dutch name was Willem de Volder, was born in the year 1493, at the Hague, and was therefore sometimes called Hagiensis. Later he translated his name into Greek and into Latin, and called himself Gnapheus, or sometimes Fullonius. Probably educated by the Brethren of Common Life, he got his B.A. at the University of Cologne, and after that he settled as a teacher at the Hague. But pretty soon he came under the suspicion of being a Lutheran, and was put into the prison of the Inquisition at Delft immediately after the Inquisition was introduced in the Netherlands. He was, however, set free by the influence of the States of Holland. After having been imprisoned again in 1525 as being the author of a pamphlet

1 See Lateinische Literatur denkmäler des XV und XVI Jahrhunderts no 13. Georgius Macropedius' Rebelles und Aluta herausgegeben von Johannes Bolte, Berlin, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1897.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 210 against monastic life, he fled in 1528 from persecution, at first to Elbing in Germany, where, in 1535, he became rector of the Latin school. In 1541 we find him at Konigsberg as counsel of the Duke Albrecht, and as rector of the newly founded University. The Lutherans, however, accused him of being a Calvinist, and therefore he went to Embden in East Friesland, in the year 1547, where he, on the recommendation of the Reformer Johannes a Lasco, became the secretary of the Countess Anna, and the tutor of her children. He died on the 29th of September, 1568, at Norden in East Friesland. He wrote several Latin plays, as Triumphus Eloquentiae, Morosophus, and Hypocrisis. But the most important one by far is his Acolastus, written for the students of the Latin school at the Hague, in which he treated the same subject, and in the same way as later Gascoigne in his Glasse of Government.1 The Acolastus of Gnapheus is considered as the source of Gascoigne's Glasse of Government. Probably the Rebelles of Macropedius may have been a second source. And then there is still a third Latin drama on the same theme, written by a man called Stymmelius, a play which Gascoigne might have known, and which is entitled ‘Studentes,’ but this is ‘a direct imitation of the Acolastus’2 of Gnapheus, and is much inferior not only to Acolastus but to Rebelles.3 The Acolastus of Grapheus won a European fame. Bolte mentions forty-eight editions, which appeared in the centers of learning in Europe before the year

1 See Lateinische Litteratur denkmäler des XV und XVI Jahrhunderts. Guilielmus Gnaphens, Acolastus. Herausgegeben von Johannes Bolte, Berlin, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1891. 2 Charles H. Herford. Studies in the literary relations of England and Germany in the sixteenth century. Cambridge, 1886, p. 155. 3 Ibid., p. 156.

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1587, the first edition being that at Antwerp in the year 1529. It was translated into French, German and English. The English edition is from the year 1540 by a school teacher at London called Johannes Palsgrave, and is dedicated to King Henry VIII, so that it is nearly impossible that Gascoigne should not have known the work, even if he never had been in the Netherlands. The question whether Gascoigne wrote his Glasse of Government in 1565, before he came to the Netherlands, or in 1575, after he returned to England, is therefore of very little importance. Herford, in his Studies, makes an elaborate comparison between Gascoigne's Glasse of Government and the Acolastus of Gnapheus, with Macropedius' Rebelles and the Studentes of Stymmelius, showing that in all the main points, the subject is treated in the same way, so that every thought of their being independent of each other is excluded1 ‘Distinct copy,’ says Herford, ‘is Gascoigne's Glasse of Government not; it is written throughout with a different bias; it is the work of a Calvinist, not of a Catholic or of a Lutheran; it is in the vernacular, not in Latin; in prose, not in verse. For all that, however, it assuredly belongs to the same dramatic cycle; it is the attempt, that is, to connect Terentian situations with a Christian moral in a picture of school life.’2 The interesting part about Gascoigne is that in his broadminded conception the two lines of Renaissance and Reformation seem to meet each other, and to unite as in the works of the great Reformers, avoiding the one sidedness of the Humanists in their exclusive admiration of classical form, as well as that

1 Ibid., p. 162-164. 2 Ibid., p. 160. A review of the contents of the Acolastus, as well as of Gascoigne's Glasse of Government, is given by Herford and in the Cambridge History of English Literature, V. 127.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 212 of the Protestant people, where they, in their zeal for religious reform, neglected too much the value of literary beauty. Besides the works of Gascoigne we find the influence of the Latin dramas in different works of English literature. ‘A reminiscence of the Acolastus of Gnapheus,’ says Herford, ‘is doubtless also to be found in S. Nicholson's Acolastus, His After-wit, where Eubulus, the ancient friend and good counsellor, corresponds to the Prodigal's father of the same name in Gnapheus; while Acolastus himself is distinctly assimilated to the Prodigal.’1 Finally, Johannes Bolte, in his edition of Macropedius' Rebelles and Aluta, mentions one of the ballads of the Scottish priest, Alexander Geldes (1737-1802), to be found in R. Chambers, The Scottish Songs, II, 316, and in A. Whitelaw, The Book of Scottish Songs, p. 76, as showing the most close connection with the Aluta of Macropedius.2

1 Herford, p. 159, note. 2 J. Bolte, Macropedius Rebelles und Aluta, Einleitung, p. XXIII.

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Chapter XXVI Thomas Churchyard (1520-1604) - The ‘Nestor of Elizabethan Heroes’ as a Soldier and Poet in the Netherlands.

Thomas Churchyard (1520-1604), although not a genius as powerful as Gascoigne, and not to be compared with Spenser and Shakespeare, yet ‘honestly is ranked by a competent judge among the great poets of his age; among such poets, as have not often been equalled and will not soon be surpassed;’ a poet ‘who may run abreast with any of that age writing in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign.’1 ‘For his period a smooth and accomplished versifier, who had taken to heart the lessons taught by Wyatt and Surrey, and who did his share of work of restoring form and order to English poetry.’2 Both in his life and in his works he stands in close contact with the Netherlands. His life is divided into three periods: The first period is from his birth in 1520, at Shrewsbury, till the year 1542, when he left his native country to serve as a soldier on the Continent. About this period we know that he studied at Oxford; that, at the age of 17, he ‘besought his father to let him depart from home, to seek his hap amidst the many competitions of life;’ that he went to court, wasted his money, and found service with Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, during the four years from 1537 to 1541. The Earl of Surrey, the same nobleman in whose home Hadrianus Junius lived as a tutor during some years just after Churchyard left, is always remembered by Churchyard with gratefulness and praise.

1 George Chalmers, Churchyard's Chips concerning Scotland, with historical notes, and a life of the author, London, 1817. This little book, although under so modest a title, gives by far the best biography of Churchyard ever published till our present day. 2 Cambridge History of English Literature, III, p. 205.

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The second period (1542-1572) contains the thirty years in which Churchyard served as a soldier in the Netherlands, in Ireland and in Scotland, writing at the same time a great number of his works in verse and in prose. This period, from his twenty-second till his fifty-second year, is the deciding one of his life and has made him forever the poet-soldier in English literature. The third period (1572-1604) of Churchyard's life, contains the thirty years of life's decline, during which he often ‘assisted in amusing the queen’ Elizabeth by his poems, and out of all the richness of his experiences produced a great number of poems and prose works, reflecting all the knowledge and the wisdom, all the thrilling stories, dangers and braveries of his eventful life. During the second period of his life, we find Churchyard in the Netherlands successively in seven different campaigns: (1) In the years 1542-1544 he fought in the army of the Emperor, Charles V, who, in alliance with the King of England, Henry VIII, made war against Francis I of France. After the peace of Crespy, in 1544, Churchyard returned to England,

‘A weary of those wasting woes, A while he left the war, And for desire to learn the tongues He travelled very far, And had of every language part When homeward did he draw, And could rehearsal make full well Of that abroad he saw.’

But this was only the first campaign, and the opportunity to see many things and to make rehearsal was to be offered to him still many times. (2) In the years 1552-1555, after Churchyard had wooed the widow Browning, who gave him a plain

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 215 refusal, he again ‘found solace in war, with its perils, its varieties and its pleasures.’ He served again in the army of Charles V against Francis I during three years. It was during this war that Churchyard ‘sailed down the pleasant flood of Rhine’ and served in Flanders, the richest of all the countries under the dominion of the Emperor. From the Netherlands and especially from Flanders, Charles V got two-fifths of all his income. But soon it became the scene of murder and devastation, of which Churchyard was destined to be an eye-witness. (3) During the years 1557-1559, in the beginning of the reign of Philip II over Spain and over the Netherlands, Churchyard was again at the wars when Queen Mary of England (1553-1558), whom Philip had married, made war against France. During that campaign Calais was taken by the French army under Guise in 1558, and after the conquest of Calais, immediately the city of Guisnes was besieged. Churchyard was one of the defenders, and he was an intermediary in offering the surrender of this city. (4) In the year 1566, during the outbreak of image-breaking in Antwerp, Churchyard was there, being an eye-witness of that tremendous tumult. There he offered his services to the Prince of Orange; the Prince

‘Bad me do well, and shed no guiltless blood; And save from spoil poor people and their good.’

Being in the service of the Prince, and probably agreeing with his policy, we can understand what Churchyard says, that in the eyes of the tumultuous population he was too moderate. ‘The Prince retired from this scene of tumult. The insurgents, amounting to 30,000, placed Churchyard at their head; the nobles having fled, he saved the religious houses and the

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 216 town from cruel sword and fire. But such a multitude he could not manage long, and he was obliged to abscond, and to make his escape in priest's attire, but not with shaven crown. He found his way through many hazards, into Sealand, followed by the marshall, but, getting into a ship, at the Sluis, notwithstanding that officer's searches, he arrived safe in England, at the end of 1566.’1 (5) In the years 1567-1568. The troubles at Antwerp had not at all deterred Churchyard. On the contrary it seems that his first contact with the Prince of Orange had inspired him to devote himself to the sacred cause of liberty. In the very first campaign of the Prince of Orange, in the war of independence, Churchyard was with the Prince. Chalmers tells the story as follows: ‘At the beginning of 1567, the Prince of Orange, encouraged by the princes of Germany, began to collect troops at his own domain of Dillenburgh, about ten leagues from Cologne. Thither was Churchyard sent, by the Earl of Oxford, lord high chamberlain of England, as an , no doubt, to see, and to report, what passed at the commencement of a war, which was attended by memorable consequences. He was obliged to go by the way of Paris, where he was kindly assisted by lord Norris, the English ambassador. Churchyard arrived at Dillenburgh in time to see the meeting of that great assembly of warriors who were to contest with so great a general as the duke of Alva, for the independence of the Law Countries. Churchyard served under Count de la March as cornet-bearer to 250 light horsemen, during the first campaign of this signal war. The Prince of Orange mustered his army of 22,000 foot and 13,000 horse, beyond the Rhine at Anderwike. The Prince marched forward toward

1 Chalmers, p. 20.

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Aix, Sentre and Tongre; but, when he approached to Flanders, he was everywhere ‘bearded’ by the Duke of Alva, with 30,000 shot and 4,000 horsemen. The Prince had thus a hard antagonist to contend with, for the prize of skill, experience and circumspection. These two great commanders avoided a general action; knowing how much they risked and might lose. After many sharp encounters, the Prince, perceiving that he could make no impression upon such a general as Alva, drew off his army from Flanders into France, near Guise and St. Quinten; and afterwards marched into winter quarters about Strasbourgh. It was on this march that Churchyard took his leave and departed for England. From the account which he afterwards published of the late campaign, we may easily suppose what report he made to the lord great chamberlain, his employer.’ ‘Churchyard now felt for the Flemings; wished success to the Prince of Orange; and entertained a strong desire to see the event of the subsequent campaign of 1568. Whether he was again sent by the lord great chamberlain, he does not say, though it may be inferred from subsequent events that he was; but he is studious to tell what risks he ran and dangers he endured in traveling through France to the Rhine during an age of warfare and demoralization. After escaping many hazards he at length joined the Prince of Orange at his house of Dillenbourgh. By the Prince's people, Churchyard was now made welcome with many a mad carouse. At the opening of the campaign, 1568, towards Flanders they marched; but for want of money the Prince's army lay for some months near the Rhine and at some distance from such an enemy. Whatever may have been given out, the Prince was too penetrating not to perceive the

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 218 superiority of his opponent in great talents, in a disciplined army and the compactness of his force. Meantime, the governor of the Netherlands published an act of tolerance for the Protestants, which enfeebled the Prince's arms. Owing to all those causes the campaign of 1568 passed away, in demonstration rather than in efforts. Churchyard found in his privations that his own share of sufferings was not the severest of the patriot soldiers. When the Prince of Orange retired from Flanders and passed into France, our adventurer asked his permission to visit his native soil. The Prince assented but warned him that the French by some artifice would arrest his journey. The duke of Alva commanded every Englishman to be detained as so many pledges for the Spanish treasure that had been stopped in England. We may thus see that Churchyard ran a double risk of being detained either in Flanders or in France. Riding along the limits of the two countries, and pointing to the nearest port, he was betrayed by a peasant into the hands of banditti, who robbed him of his horse and his equipments, and from whom he escaped by a sort of miracle. These disasters happened near St. Ouinten. And he was now reduced to the necessity of trudging on foot sixty miles through an unfriendly people; while he was hardly treated by the captain of Peronne as he pressed forward to Abbeville. He at length found a vessel which was bound to Guernsey, where he was well received by Captain Leighton, the governor. Yet, in this hospitable isle he remained not longer than his refreshment required. And he arrived at last, after so many disasters, on his native soil at the beginning of 1569, a year of disturbance and rebellion.’1 (6) During the years 1569-1570 we find Church-

1 Chalmers, p. 20-24.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 219 yard fighting among the Sea-Beggars, those desperate heroes who had lost everything, who had seen their fathers and their mothers, their brothers and sisters, murdered by the Inquisition or by the Spanish soldiers, and who, in their utmost despair, at last fought their battle to the knife and gained the first victories in the great struggle. Their victories really began with the capture of Den Briel on the first of April, 1572. Before that date they tried several times to conquer one or the other city, but in vain. And during that first time of misfortune Churchyard was with them. With several other English stipendaries under their captain Morgan, we find him at the siege of Ter Goes, in 1569, but without success. The siege was raised by the persevering fortitude of the Spanish soldiers, with the loss of 200 English and French troops who were either slain or taken. After performing great service sundry times during half a year, Churchyard was wounded and taken prisoner. This happened in 1570. Churchyard seems to have been now recognized as the soldier who had mingled in the late tumult at Antwerp; who had then only escaped death for his misdeeds to return again and again into a distracted country; he was now imprisoned as a spy; and was even condemned to lose his head by martial law. The day which was appointed for his execution had even arrived, ‘when a noble dame his respite craved and spoke for him so fair that the marshal of the camp listened to her speech; and he was pardoned and again allowed to return home with money in his purse.’1 (7) Two years later, in 1572, once more we find Churchyard fighting with the sons of liberty in the Netherlands, viz., as one of the defenders of the city of Zutphen, which city in the beginning of 1572 had

1 Chalmers, p. 27.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 220 chosen the side of the Prince, and was now beleaguered by the Spaniards. ‘Neither the experiences nor the hair-breadth escapes of Churchyard could restrain him from mingling in the hostilities of the Netherlands, while Protestantism continued to be persecuted, He again seems to have joined with the English volunteers, who defended Zutphen for the States, which was taken, however, by the son of Alva in November, 1572.’1 At Zutphen, near the spot where Philip Sydney, several years later, lost his life fighting against the same enemy, it was that for the last time Churchyard drew his sword for the great cause of liberty. Now he ‘hung up his corslet like the soldier tired of war's alarm.’2 Four years later, in 1576, we find Churchyard again, and, as far as we know, for the last time in the Netherlands. ‘The Netherlands,’ says Chalmers, ‘had been so much the adventurous scenes of Churchyard's younger life, that he could not, in his latter days, refrain from visiting those celebrated countries, for commerce, for wars, for policy. He certainly went to Brussels in the autumn of 1576, but whether he was sent thither by some great man or went in obedience of his own desire to contemplate the passing scene, appears not. At Brussels he saw a meeting of many ambassadors to concert a pacification for those wretched countries. He saw the rejoicing for their peace restored. He perhaps remained long enough to witness the breach of that treaty by the habitual treachery of don John, the bastard of Austria.’3 Such were the connections of Thomas Churchyard with the Netherlands during the thirty best years of his life. Was it possible that a man who, in his many works in verse and in prose, wrote down nearly every

1 Chalmers, p. 27. 2 Ibid. 3 Chalmers, p. 31

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 221 story, every feature, every experience of his life, should not have felt as a poet the influence of such immensely interesting campaigns, and events, of which he had been an eye-witness, as for instance, the image-breaking at Antwerp in 1566, the first campaign of William of Orange in 1567 and 1568, the first endeavors of the Sea-Beggars in 1569, the defense of Zutphen in 1572, and at last the festivities with Don Juan at Brussels in 1576? No, that was impossible. On the contrary, several of his works are just the result of his experiences in the Netherlands, as even their titles may show, and many a poem probably has been inspired by what Churchyard saw during those adventurous years. The following works of Churchyard are the immediate result of his experiences in the Netherlands: (1) A lamentable and pitifull Description of the wofull Warres in Flaunders, since the foure last years of the Emperor Charles the fifth his raigne. With a briefe rehearsall of many things done since that season, untill this present yeare and death of Don John. Written by Thomas Churchyard Gentleman. Imprinted at London by Ralph Newberrie, Anno 1578. This work was dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham, and in his dedication, the author informs us that this brief discourse on the troubles and afflictions of Flanders was not gathered out of other men's gardens, but derived entirely from his own knowledge and experience.’ See Thomas Corser. Collectanea Anglo-Poetica. Part IV, p. 364-366. (2) Churchyard's Choise. London, 1579. The contents of this work, as given by Chalmers, p. 56, are in ten parts, of which No. 1 is entitled, A general Rehearsell of Warres in the Netherlands, in Scotland, in Ireland and at Sea, which comprehends

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one half of the volume; and No. 4 entitled, ‘A small Rehearsell of some special Services in Flaunders of late part whereof were in the tyme of Don Jhon's government and the rest beying doen in the present service of the Prince of Parma, now governour of Flaunders.’ (3) A true Report of a dangerous Service attempted and brought to pass by Englishmen, Scotsmen, and Walloons for the taking of Machlin in Flanders. Dedicated to Lord Norrice, London, 1580. (4) The right pleasant and variable tragical History of Fortunatus: first penned in the Dutch tongue, hence abstracted and now first of all published in English by T.C. London, 1682 - ‘but certainly printed before 1600’ says Chalmers, p. 59, quoting Ritson's Bibl., 169. W.C. Hazlitt, in his Hand-Book, also gives this as the work of Churchyard, without mentioning that it was translated from the Dutch. Charles H. Herford, in his Studies in the literary relations between England and Germany, tells something about the history of Fortunatus as a story spread over several countries of Europe, but does not mention Churchyard's translation from the Dutch. If Herford had known this work, it might have changed some of his ideas about the way the story of Fortunatus came into English literature. Herford, p. 203-219 and 405. (5) ‘A true Discourse historical of the succeeding in the Netherlands and the Civil Wars there begun in the yeare 1565 with the memorable services of our Honourable English Generals, Captaines and Souldiers, especially under Sir John Norrice Knight there performed from the yeare 1577 until the yeare 1589, and afterwards in Portugale, France,

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Britaine and Ireland until the year 1598. Translated and collected by T.C. Esquire and Ric: Ro. out of the Reverend E.M. of Antwerp his fifteen books Historiae Belgicae and other collections added, altogether manifesting all martiall actions meete for every good subject to reade, for defence of Prince and Country. London, 1602.’ The main source for this work of Churchyard, the Reverend E.M., of Antwerp, is the well-known Dutch historian, Emmanuel van Meteren, in Latin, Emmanuel Meteranus. See Corser's Collectanea IV, 385-390, where the author gives an extensive review of this interesting work of Churchyard. Churchyard himself mentions still another book, ‘in which was the whole service of my L. of Lester mentioned, that he and his train did in Flanders.’ See Chalmers, p. 64. How many poems and stories told in the numerous works of Churchyard may be the result of all his experiences in the Netherlands, would be very interesting to know, and here is an almost unexplored field, left for the research of some scholar, for instance, for a doctoral thesis. How many tales Churchyard may have told at the court of Queen Elizabeth, and in the literary circles, tales brought from the Netherlands, and by his agency introduced into the center of literary England, we can hardly imagine.1

1 In connection with Gascoigne and Churchyard, I may add here a few words about the well-known playwright, Ben Jonson (1573-1637). From the way De Hoog writes about Jonson one would get the idea that he was as much influenced by the Netherlands as Gascoigne and Churchyard. But so far as I have found out, the influence of Holland on Jonson is not to be compared with that on Gascoigne and Churchyard. Jonson in his youth served for a short time as a soldier in the Netherlands, and as W. Gifford says in his Biographical Memoir (Works of Jonson, ed. 1875, Vol. I, p. XXX), this happened in the year 1591 at Ostend, which city was held by an English garrison. It seems that he fought there a duel with good success for him, but otherwise he ‘brought little from Flanders but the reputation of a brave man, a smattering of Dutch and an empty purse.’ Any influence of this short abode in the Netherlands on his writings seems not yet to have been discovered. Nevertheless, the possibility remains that some day something may be discovered which may be worthy to be mentioned in this connection.

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Chapter XXVII Sir Jan van der Noot and Edmund Spenser

(1) The Theatre of Worldlings (2) Its Author (3) Spenser's Connection with It (4) Spenser and Van der Noot

1. The Theater of Worldlings.

In the year 1569 there appeared at London a book entitled, ‘A Theatre wherein be represented as well the miseries and calamities that follow the voluptuous Worldlings, as also the greate joyes and pleasures which the faithfull do enjoy. An argument both profitable and delectable to all that sincerely love the word of God. Devised by John van der Noodt.’1 ‘Seene and allowed according to the order appointed: Imprinted at London by Henry Bynnerman. Anno Domini 1569. Cum Privilegio.’ This book is dedicated to Queen Elizabeth and the dedication is dated May 25, 1569. The contents are divided into two parts, the first and smaller part being twenty-one verses of about twelve lines each, and the second part containing an elaborate explanation of 107 pages about what is said in the verses. The verses are called ‘either visions or epigrams, or sonnets or emblems, as you like it’; the first six of them are translated from the Italian poet, Petrarch; the next eleven from the French poet, De Bellay; and the last four from the original Dutch verses of the

1 A copy of this book is in the British Museum.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 225 author himself. Twenty of these twenty-one verses are illustrated with woodcuts, and this makes the book look like an emblem book - as this first part really is. The verses from Petrarch, and De Bellay are intended, everyone of them, to give an example of the world's vanity. In those from Petrarch, the following subjects are treated: (1) - a fair hinde suddenly attacked and killed by two ‘egre dogs’; (2) - a beautiful , freighted with riche treasures, in one moment lost and drowned by striking a rock; (3) - a ‘fresh and lusty lawrell tree’ struck by a sudden flash of heaven's fire; (4) - a spring of water being on a certain moment devoured by the gaping earth; (5) - a fine bird, a Phoenix, who ‘himself smote with his beake,’ as in disdain, so that he died; (6) - a fair lady suddenly caught by the heele by a stinging serpent. In those from De Bellay we find the following examples of the world's vanity: (1) - a ghost appearing to the poet on the great river's bank ‘that runnes by Rome,’ telling him about the vanity of Rome and ‘what under this great temple is contained’; (2) - a building, a frame on a hill suddenly destroyed by an earthquake; (3) - a magnificent monument of an emperor destroyed by a sudden ‘tempest from heaven with flash striking down the noble monument’; (4) - a ‘triumphal arke,’ but ‘let me no more see faire things under heaven, since I saw so fair a thing as this with sudden falling broken all to dust’;

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(5) - a fair Dodonian tree upon seven hills, when barbarous villaines outraged the honor of these noble bowes; (6) - a bird that dares behold the sun, when suddenly he tumbles down from the air, ‘in lompe of fire’; (7) - a hideous body, big and strong, the Trojan hero, founding Rome, in his right hand the tree of peace, in his left the conquering palme; then suddenly the palm and olive fell; (8) - a wailing nimphe, tuning her plaint to falling rivers sound at Rome, that always again produces so many Neroes and Caligulas to rule this croked shore’; (9) - a kindled flame of precious ceder tree, with balmlike oder perfuming the air, when suddenly ‘dropping of a golden shower gan quench the glystering flame and of sulphur now did breathe corrupted smell’; (10) - a fresh spring and hundred nymphes, who sat by side ‘when from the hills a naked rout of faunes with hideous cry assembled on the place and with their feet unclean the water fouled, threw down the seats and drove the nymphes to flight’; (11) - the great Typhaeus' sister, raising a trophee over all the world and hundred vanquished kings at her feet, but the heavens war against her’; ‘I saw her stricken fall with clap of thunder.’ After all these examples of the world's vanity, interesting in their variety, beautifully described, but monotonous in representing the same idea, follow the four poems of the author himself. They form the central part of the book, they show us that all the previous examples of the world's vanity serve only as an introduction to the solution of the great prob-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 227 lem which the poet has in his mind. They give the solution of the great problem of that time; they contain the life system of the persecuted Protestants of Europe; they touch the very heart of the thousands of refugees, who fled from persecution; who saw their relatives burned at the stake; who lost everything except life, and who felt the world's vanity to the extreme. It was at the time when the Duke of Alva was murdering his thousands in the Netherlands, when Lutherans in Germany, Huguenots in France, Puritans in England, during several years had suffered the severest persecution, and all Protestantism was in danger of being annihilated by the Roman Catholic world power, and when no Protestant was safe with his life. At that horrible time in the world's history, Protestants were horror-stricken by the terrible action of Roman Catholicism; they saw in Rome, the Beast of the Apocalypse, the Anti-Christ, and in the Roman Catholic Church the ‘woman sitting on the Beast,’ whose delight was the blood of the martyrs. Their prayer was day and night to God in Heaven for relief, and the solution of their great problem was in the future triumph of Christ; their consolation was in looking upward to the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, where there shall be no vanity of this world, no more persecution of the saints; where dwells their Lord and their God, and where ‘all their tears He shall wipe clean away.’ To these ideas, to this very life-system of the persecuted Protestants, the author, who himself was one of them, gave expression in his Theatre. After all the examples of Petrarch, and De Bellay, showing the world's vanity, he proceeds to print his four poems - (1) on the Anti-Christ, the Beast of the Apocalypse; (2) on the Roman Catholic

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Church, the woman sitting on the Beast; (3) on the triumph of the Christ, the faithful man sitting on a white horse; and (4) on the Holy City, the New Jerusalem in Heaven. Because, they form the very pith of the book, I give them here in full:

I ‘I saw an ugly beast come from the sea, That seven heads, ten crounes, ten hornes did bear, Having thereon the vile blaspheming name. The cruell leopard she resembled much: Feete of a beare, a lions throte she had. The mightie Dragon gave to hir his power. One of hir heads yet there I did espie, Still freshly bleeding of a grievous wounde. One cride aloude. ‘What one is like (quod he) This honoured Dragon, or may him withstande? And then came from the sea a savage beast, With Dragons speche, and shewde his force by fire, With wondrous signes to make all wights adore The beast, in setting of hir image up.

II ‘I saw a woman sitting on a beast Before mine eyes, of orenge colour hew: Horrour and dreadfull name of blasphemie Filde hir with pride. And seven heads I saw; Ten hornes also the stately beast did beare. She seemde with glorie of the scarlet faire, And with fine perle and golde puft up in heart. The wine of hooredome in a cup she bare. The name of mysterie writ in hir face; The bloud of martyrs dere were hir delite. Most fierce and fell this woman seemde to me. An angell then descending downe from Heaven With thondring voice cride out aloude, and sayd, ‘Now for a truth great Babylon is fallen.’

III ‘Then might I see upon a white horse set The faithfull man with flaming countenaunce;

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His head did shine with crounes set therupon; The Worde of God made him a noble name. His precious robe I saw embrued with bloud. Then saw I from the heaven on horses white, A puissant armie come the selfe same way. Then cried a shining angell, as me thought, That birdes from aire descending downe on earth Should warre upon the kings, and eate their flesh. Then did I see the beast and kings also Joinyng their force to slea the faithfull man. But this fierce hatefull beast and all hir traine Is pitilesse throwne downe in pit of fire.

IV ‘I saw new Earth, new Heaven, sayde Saint John. And loe! the sea (quod he) is now no more. The holy citie of the Lorde from hye Descendeth, garnisht as a loved spouse. A voice then sayde, ‘Beholde the bright abode Of God and men. For he shall be their God, And all their teares he shall wipe cleane away.’ Hir brightnesses greater was than can be founde. Square was this citie, and twelve gates it had. Eche gate was of an orient perfect pearle, The houses golde, the pavement precious stone. A lively streame, more cleere than christall is, Ranne through the mid, sprong from triumphant seat. There growes lifes fruite unto the Churches good.1

In reading these verses, after having read those from Petrarch and De Bellay, we see the whole conception of the book. In these verses we meet with the author, and with the very pith and the heart of the book. In all the examples of the world's vanity, taken from Petrarch and De Bellay, the persecuted Protestants read only their own misery and bereaved condition, which, in themselves should have depressed

1 A reprint of all the verses of the Theatre is in the Cambridge edition of Spenser's works, p. 765-767. A reprint of all these verses in the original Dutch is in Albert Verwey Gedichten van Jonker Jan van der Noot. Amsterdam, 1895.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 230 and disheartened them to death. But that was not the idea of the author. He, one of their leading spirits, their poet and their genius, says to his brethren and sisters: This world's vanity, which we endure, is everywhere, and is no exception in this world; but our hope and our consolation is somewhere else. Our enemy, the Anti-Christ, and the Church of Rome, which is under the leadership of Anti-Christ in persecuting the martyrs, shall fall down as the great Babylon; our Lord and Saviour, Christ, shall be triumphant, and our future is the eternal life in the Holy City of God. In these four verses the author gives with masterly treatment the four chapters of the life-system of the persecuted Protestants of his time, and the real expression of what lived in the hearts of thousands of refugees in England, in Germany, in France and in the Netherlands. The elaborate prose part that follows in the second part of the book, and covers 107 pages, is nothing but a broad explanation of this great scheme. Knowing the contents of this book, we do not wonder that it appeared within a few years, successively, in Dutch, in French, in English and in German. The original edition was in Dutch, published in 1568 at Antwerp;1 then he translated his work in French during the same year; the next year, 1569, appeared his English edition printed at London; and two years later, in 1571, it appeared in German, printed at Cologne. This book is one of the most striking answers

1 A copy of the original Dutch edition is in the Koninklÿke bibliotheek at Brussels and another one in the Kon. Bibl. at the Hague. All the editions are mentioned by Aug. Vermeulen - Leven en werken van Jonker Jan van der Noot, Antwerp, 1899.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 231 given from the Protestant side of that time to the dreadful persecutions instigated by the Roman Catholic world power, and one of the best expressions of what lived in the hearts of thousands of persecuted people in the different countries of western Europe. It is not for this reason only that this book may be called a remarkable one, but for its literary value, and for its illustrations as well. The best authors on the history of the Dutch literature agree at least in this point, that this and other works of Van der Noot belong to those books, which started a new epoch in national literature, and prepared the way for the work of Hooft and Vondel.1 The English version of this book, especially as regards the first part, containing the verses, is more and more considered to be an event in the history of English literature, as far as the development of the sonnet and of blank verse is concerned. Speaking about the verses contained in this book, Alexander B. Grosart, the editor of the famous edition of Edmund Spenser's works, says: ‘But this is more than a curiosity of Literature. It is a central fact in the story of our national Literature, and specifically in the story of the origin and the progress of the blank verse which was predestined soon to grow so mighty and marvelous an instrument in the hands of Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare, and onward of Milton, Cowper and Wordsworth.’2 Finally, as regards its illustrations this book, as everybody acknowledges, has the honor of being the first emblem book printed in the English language.

1 Albert Verwey, Kedichten van Jonker Jan van der Noot, Amsterdam, 1905, p. 1-6; G. Kalff, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Letterkunde, III, 356; J. de Winkel, De antwilkkelingsgang der Nederlandsche Letterkunde, I, 298; Aug. Vermeulen, Leven en werken van Jonker Jan van der Noot, Antwerp, 1899, p. 114-140. 2 Alexander B. Grosart, Complete Works of Spenser, I. 25.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 232

2. Its author.

The author of this book was Sir John van der Noot1 (1539-1595), a nobleman of the Southern Netherlands, born at Brecht, near Antwerp. The ancestors of Van der Noot were, during several centuries, held in great esteem in Brabant, and often enjoyed the highest offices in the state. Our poet, whose real name was Jan Baptista van der Noot, had the advantage of a high education. He knew how to write Latin, was well acquainted with Italian and Spanish, while in the French language he expressed himself nearly as well as in Flemish, his mother tongue. After the death of his father, in 1558, he settled at Antwerp, and after he became of age, we find him among the magistrates of Antwerp. Some years later, Van der Noot was celebrated at Antwerp as a great poet, and even was made poet laureate, which was in Flanders very exceptional A great admirer of the Italian and French humanistic poetry, especially of Petrarch and Marot, Du Bellay and Ronsard, he had much esteem for poetry, ‘which gives immortality,’ and he was well conscious of his own literary abilities, as well as of his noble birth, and his high standing. During the tumultuous days of 1566, when the long fostered spirit of the Reformation inspired the mass of the people more and more with antipathy against the Roman Catholic Church, and at last broke out in the image-breaking, Van der Noot appears as one of the leaders of the Calvinistic people, trying to get hold of the government of the city. But soon, when the Duke of Alva was on his way to the Netherlands, Van der Noot was among the hundred thousand people who fled from the coun-

1 All we know about the life of Van der Noot is brought together by August Vermeulen in his ‘Het leven en de werken van Jonker Jan van der Noot, Antwerpen, 1899.’

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 233 try, and so, in the year 1569, we find him at London, as one of the thousands of Dutch refugees in that city. Here he stayed for more than two years at least (March, 1567, until May 25, 1569, the date of the dedication of his English version of the Theatre to Queen Elizabeth). At what time he really left London we do not know, but in 1571 we find him in Germany, and during the next year, 1572, the remarkable year of the St. Bartholemew, the year of the first triumph of the sea-beggars, those first invincible sons of liberty, Van der Noot published his German translation of the Theatre, printed at Cologne. But this German translation was no more the same Theatre that was written in Dutch, translated into French and English and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. The sharpest expressions against the Roman Catholic Church were changed and softened. Van der Noot, after having left London, and probably after having been disappointed in a social way, had gone to live in Germany, and had there become acquainted with quite another kind of people, for instance, with the great Dutch humanist, Coornhert, who later proved able enough to convert the young Arminius from Calvinism to Humanism. Under such influences, Van der Noot was converted, probably first from Calvinism, and finally from Humanism to Roman Catholicism, and his German Theatre is the best proof of this conversion. The manifold discussions about principles and dogmas among the Calvinists, and the often one-sided predominance amongst them of intellectualism, and logical ideas, with their unavoidable consequences, accompanied but too often with a lack of kindred feeling, seem to have been unbearable for Van der Noot, a poet of tender feeling, more than of intellectual strength. On the social side not independent, and

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 234 probably pretty badly supported; on the literary and artistic side not so much appreciated as he deserved, he did not more feel himself at home among those stubborn Calvinists, who submitted every part of human life to the iron consequences of their infallible dogmas, and who, at that time, had not made enough progress in the finer side of life to pay full attention to the value of poetry and of art. Like Hugo Grotius, like Rousseau, like Robespierre, Van der Noot was of a soft and tender nature, easily aroused to sympathy, as well as to antipathy, using with literary ability the power of his pen like a flash of lightning, and consequently easily misunderstood by posterity, which often does not take the trouble to analyse, and fully to understand, and is but too often satisfied by simply looking at men and events from their outward side. His return to the Roman Catholic Church does not show him in the sublime splendor of a martyr, but for us at least his return is as easily understood as that of his famous English contemporary, Ben Jonson, or as that of his great compatriot, Vondel. The true explanation of Van der Noot's return to the Roman Catholic Church, and of other facts of his life, as, for instance, the real story of the English translation of the verses in his Theatre, have not yet been fully discovered, but it is certainly going too far to say that Van der Noot ‘never hesitated to make the biggest lies,’1 and I fully agree with Dr. Kalff when he says that a ‘Sufficient answer to these questions as yet cannot be given.’2 However this may be, Van der Noot lived in Germany for several years. In 1576 he published there ‘Das Buch Extrasis,’ but in 1578 we find him in

1 Aug. Vermeulen, p. 30. Literally Vermeulen says ‘Nooit heeft hy gevreesd over alle waarheid heente springen.’ 2 G. Kalff, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Letterkunde, III, 341.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 235

Paris, and a short time afterwards he returned to his native city, after having traveled for eleven years in England, Germany and France. Recommended by the Arch-Duke, Matthias of Austria, who hoped for a while to be governor of the Netherlands, Van der Noot returned to Antwerp as a Catholic, and, as far as we know, lived there till his death in 1595. His poetical works are (1) ‘Het Bosken’ (1567), containing several little poems; this work has been reprinted many times; (2) The Theatre, in Dutch (1568), in French (1568), in English (1569), in German (1571); (3) The Olympias (Antwerp, 1579), an allegorical-epic poem in twelve books, after the model of the great French and Italian poets of the Rennaisance. Of this work, Aug. Vermeulen mentions several editions; in German it was translated under the title, ‘Das Buch Extasis;’ (4) Lofsang van Brabant (Song in Praise of Brabant), 1580. In the history of Dutch literature, Van der Noot's place is that of the best known precursor of the great literature of Hooft and Vondel, as ‘the only one from an age in which we till this time did not find one single poet of any importance;’1 as the poet who has been intermediate between the poets of the French Renaissance, and the Dutch poets of the seventeenth century; as ‘the Pleiade-poet of the Netherlands,’ without whom there would have been no Hooft and even no Vondel, at least not so complete and not with so much authority in the language of the jambus,’2 or as ‘one of those who prepared the way for the Renaissance’ in the Netherlands.3 For the history of English literature, his influence

1 Albert Verwey, Gedichten van Jonker Van der Noot. Preface, p. 1. 2 Verwey, p. V. 3 Kalff, III, 386.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 236 is confined to that of the Theatre, especially to the verses in that book, and secondly to the personal influence he may have exerted on Edmund Spenser. The question of the translation of the poems of Van der Noot's Theatre into English, and the connection of Van der Noot with Spenser is, however, so important that it for a moment requires our special attention.

3. Spenser's connection with ‘the Theatre.’

In the year 1591, Edmund Spenser, among the poems of his Complaints, reprinted the verses which in 1569 had appeared in the Theatre of Van der Noot. By revising, and partly rewriting them, Spenser places these verses so decidedly under his own name, and authority, that nobody can doubt Spenser's authorship of these English translations of Van der Noot's verses, unless for very serious reasons, since Spenser's character is not of such kind as to make it easy for us to assume him guilty of so bold a lie, involving a literary theft of the very worst kind that can be thought of. That Spenser himself supervised the reprint of these verses in 1591 is absolutely certain, since he gives therein an entirely new version of those of Du Bellay, and makes several little corrections in those of Petrarch.1 On the other hand, Van der Noot, in his Theatre in 1569, does not mention Spenser with one word, but, on the contrary, says only that he translated those verses from the original Dutch edition of the Theatre. Consequently, any honest treatment of the question has to start with an endeavor to reconcile all the other facts with the statement of Spenser and with that of Van der Noot, and if possible to reconcile these state-

1 Rev. Henry John Todd, in his ‘Works of Spenser,’ Vol. VII, 325-332, gives both the editions of 1569 and of 1591, comparing them one with the other and showing the differences. Also in the Cambridge edition of Spenser's works by Dr. E.E.N. Dodge both versions are reprinted, p. 764-767.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature t.o. 236

Jonkheer Jan van der Noot. Kopergravure, voorkomende in Cort Begryp der XII Boeken Olympiados (1579).

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 237 ments. Neither the short solution of the Westminster Review,1 boldly accusing Van der Noot of being a pharisee, who did not acknowledge the production of another author, nor that of De Hoog2 supposing simply that the edition of the Complaints in 1591 was published without Spenser's knowing it, nor that of the Cambridge History of English Literature3 in making a haughty and empty statement, as if there was no question at all, and as if even the name of Van der Noot might be entirely left out in treating Spenser's earliest work, can satisfy anybody who is acquainted with the difficulties in this remarkable question. Recognizing the fact that scholars of reputation who have made this question the subject of their especial research, differ so much, that, for instance, Grosart says: ‘Looking closely into the Petrarch series, it will be felt that their style is decisively that of Spenser in his early manner - Character and cadence are pre-eminently Spenserian here and throughout,’ while, on the contrary, Koeppler says: ‘Die Gedichte des “Theatre” von 1569 zeigen keine Spur der so augenfälligen Färbung der Spenserschen Sprache,’ and a third one, August Vermeulen, after his researches, comes to this conclusion: ‘Whether Van der Noot has known Spenser at all, remains an open question,’4 we have to admit that here is an interesting question, the solution of which has been sought by scholars in the Netherlands, in Belgium, in England, in Germany and in America. The first and most important question is: how to reconcile the authorship claimed by Spenser in 1591 with the statement of Van der Noot in 1569 that he

1 Alexander B. Grosart, Complete Works of Spenser, I, 22. 2 De Hoog, Studien II, 48. 3 Cambridge History of English Literature, III, 241 and 285. 4 August Vermeulen, p. 58 and 59.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 238 translated the verses himself. Now we can prove that when Van der Noot says that he translated those verses from the Dutch, this is anyhow not quite true, and that, to save the honor of Van der Noot, we have to take these words in any possible sense in which the author of the book at that moment might have used them. The comparison of the English translation with the Dutch and the French versions shows clearly that they are translated more from the French than from the Dutch.1 If this be a fact, which nobody can deny, we have to find out what else Van der Noot as an honest man can have meant by the words ‘translated from the Dutch.’ This is indeed not as difficult as it looks. Van der Noot had published his ‘Theatre’ first of all in Dutch, his own mother tongue. So he considered his ‘Theatre’ as a Dutch work. All the other editions, the French, the English and the German, he considered - and he wished other people to consider them - as versions of his Dutch work. That, in his sovereign power over his own work, he, as the author, followed for his English version more the French than the Dutch, did not take away the fact that the original of his book was the Dutch edition. In that sense he certainly could maintain that the English version was a translation from the Dutch, notwithstanding the fact that in making this English translation another, viz., a French translation, had rendered so considerable a service. Furthermore, that he, for his English version, used the assistance of Spenser, at that time a poor young student, hardly seventeen years old, whom he probably paid one penny for each line, just as Rubens used the assistance of his pupils for some details of hundreds of his pictures which were sold under his name, could

1 Ibid, 54 and 55.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 239 not be such an important fact for the author, who was the master of the whole work. The young assistant ‘was in no way a principal in the main undertaking when the volume came out, therefore, it nowhere gave his name. He had done his work, and received his pay - there was no need to acknowledge his services.’1 At that moment Van der Noot could not imagine that the name of his young assistant would one day become famous, and that those translations would play an important part in English literature. As a principal he did what, all over the world, principals do with their young assistants, and with their work. By getting his pay, and no further recognition at that moment, Spenser got just what every young man gets, when the master honors him by asking his assistance. Just as an architect says, with our full consent: ‘I built that house,’ even where he personally did not touch one single stone, so Van der Noot could say: ‘I made this English version of my original Dutch work.’ Van der Noot was here the architect; he was the author of the work which he wrote in Dutch, and the work of translating was of course considered as an insignificant task, for which he might have employed any other unknown person, as well as the young Spenser. Of his original Dutch work, the sovereign author made his different versions with as many alterations as he thought necessary, and with the assistance of such persons as he chose. Looking at the matter from that point of view, he could honestly maintain that he translated his original work into French, English and German, just as we ourselves speak about the French, English and German versions of Van der Noot's Theatre. Interpreting Van der Noot's statement, from his

1 R.E.N. Dodge, Cambridge edition of Spenser's Works, p. 765.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 240 point of view as chief author of the work, we can perfectly reconcile the claim of Spenser that he really translated these verses - although in an absolutely strict sense of the word this cannot be maintained either, but has to be taken with some explanation of common sense. The fact that Spenser in this translation of 1569, who, as a boy of seventeen years, supposed that he did the work alone, shows a better knowledge of the French language than when twenty years later in 1591, as a learned man of thirty-eight, he, at least in three places, shows that he failed to understand the French text of the Ruins of Rome by Du Bellay, which he at that time translated,1 this fact shows clearly that Van der Noot, who understood perfectly his French, probably explained to the young Spenser the meaning of the French, and the Dutch texts, and that consequently the translation was not entirely an independent work by the young Spenser. Nevertheless, the masterly expression of the thought in English verses was Spenser's work and the development of the English Literature has made this part of the work for us the most important part. The explanations given by Van der Noot to his assistant-translator, the young Spenser, for the right understanding of the Dutch and the French texts, may have been felt too deeply by the honest Spenser for him to have felt like claiming immediately a full right to call these verses his own, and this, as well as the fact that the translating was done in the service of Van der Noot, may have been the reason for the vague expression, ‘formerly translated,’ added to the title of the verses when Spenser republished them in 1591. At that time, the name of Van der Noot, an apostate from Protestantism, had lost a great part of its fame

1 See Vermeulen, p. 58.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 241 among the Reformed people, and the author of the Shepherd's Calendar and The Faerie Queene might not think it desirable to mention publicly his connection with Van der Noot. On the other hand, as soon as it was no longer the fact of their being translations but the masterly character of the English verses that had become important, Spenser could with full right claim them as his own work. The fact that the principal, Dr. Mulcaster, of the Merchant Taylor's school, from which the young Spenser had just graduated when he met Van der Noot, is said by Warton to have given special attention to the teaching of the English language,1 seems to be in full accordance with this view of the question, as it implies that Spenser did not give the customary amount of attention to French and other foreign languages. It can hardly mean that no attention was paid to foreign languages, including French, without some knowledge of which the young Spenser could not have done the work at all. In so far everything can reasonably be explained if we presume that Spenser really is the translator, while on the other hand, when we for a moment assume that Spenser was not the translator, we are immediately coerced to the absurd conclusion that the author of Shepherd's Calendar (1579), and of the Faerie Queene (1590) chose to publish under his name a few verses, which had been printed twenty years before, in which verses he had no part at all, and that with the chance at any moment of being blamed for so shameless a literary theft by Van der Noot himself, who was still living, or by the real translator, if such an one was alive, or had any living friends. An additional argument in favor of Spenser's

1 Grosart's Works of Spenser, I. 18.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 242 authorship of these verses is that of Grosart,1 viz., that probably Van der Noot did not master well enough the English language to make these verses. This argument, although perhaps of some value, has been exaggerated very much by Grosart, who goes so far as to suppose that even in prose Van der Noot could not express his thoughts in English. This indeed looks very improbable. A man of noble birth, of high education, and of remarkable capacity, who knew not only his French perfectly, but even his Italian very well, one of the magistrates in the cosmopolitan metropolis of Antwerp, at that time a city where thousands of English people lived, and where the opportunity of learning English was very great, such a man probably spoke and wrote the English language sufficiently to express his thoughts in a language which was at that time so near to Dutch, and so easy for a Dutchman to learn, that the historian, Van Meteren, about the year 1600 calls English ‘only a broken Dutch.’ And that Van der Noot for this reason should have to be considered as not having written himself even the pamphlet entitled ‘Governance and preservation of them that fear the Playe,’ and that there should be no evidence whatever to show that Van der Noot commanded enough of English to write it idiomatically, when living at London for at least two years and a half, and having all sorts of correctors around him, seems to me an unnecessary exaggeration, for which there is ‘no evidence whatever.’ The real reason why Van der Noot, in making his English version of the Theatre, put as much of the work as possible upon other persons in his service, and caused even the prose part to be translated by

1 Grosart, p. 19.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 243 another man, seems to me to lie in the character and position of Van der Noot as a nobleman, an aristocrat, a high spirited poet of the Rennaissance, a former magistrate at Antwerp, who had formed the custom of commanding others, and of having everything done as much as possible by other people in his service. Another interesting question in connection with Spenser's authorship of these translations, is the problem that lies before us in the four ‘visions’ or verses taken from the Apocalypse of St. John. Spenser claims the authorship of the verses translated from Petrarch, and of those from Du Bellay, but he neither reprints nor says a word about the four beautiful and most important verses from the Apocalypse, which, as we saw, form the very pith and kernel of the whole ‘Theatre.’ These verses are in their original Dutch, the only original poems of Van der Noot in this collection, and in their English version they are as beautiful in literary form as any of the others. Did Van der Noot himself translate these four verses? But then it would become very probable that he translated the others as well. Or did Spenser translate also these verses? But then the question arises: Why did Spenser not reprint these four verses with the others in his Complaints? There is great reason to think that Spenser translated them and that Van der Noot did not, and it is not difficult to see why Spenser did not reprint these verses in his volume of ‘Complaints.’ It is very improbable that Van der Noot should have had another man in his service for the translation of only these four verses, and consequently all the evidence for Spenser's authorship of the other verses, operate also as evidence for his authorship of these four. Besides this, it seems to me, from inner evidence, impossible to consider Van der Noot

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 244 himself as the translator. Some expressions and thoughts which are found in the Dutch original are left out in the English version, expressions which Van der Noot himself at that time never would have left out. In the second of the four verses, a special verse against the Roman Catholic Church, ‘the woman sitting on the Beast,’ which Van der Noot thus expresses in the Dutch original, is altered in the English:

‘Wt den hemel hoorde ick een ander steemme buyghen Segghende, gaat wt heur op dat ghy heurder plagen Niet deelachtig en wort, myn volck, mÿn goet behagen.’

The expression ‘gaat wt heur’ (go out of her), that is the advice from heaven to leave the Roman Catholic Church, is not to be found in the English version, but is at that moment such a prevailing idea of Van der Noot that he himself when translating these lines never would have left out this main idea, unless we suppose that he accommodated his language to circumstances and conditions in England, just as in later time he did in Germany, which is a possibility. In the same verse, Van der Noot speaks about ‘the blood of the saints, the good witnesses of Jesus’ (‘Van der heylighen bloet, Jesus goede ghetuyghen’), while in the English version we read about ‘The blood of martyrs dere.’ The warmer and more sympathetic expression ‘martyrs dere’ looks, indeed, quite Spenserian, while ‘the good witnesses’ of Van der Noot, looks more like that of the Humanist. It is only a little difference, but one in which speaks the heart of the author, as well as that of the translator in a typical and characteristic way. Finally, the question why Spenser, although he translated them, did not claim them, and did not re-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 245 print them in his Complaints with the others, is not difficult to answer. These four ‘visions’ are not complaints. These verses on Anti-Christ, on the Woman sitting on the Beast, on Christ, and on the Holy City, were perfectly in their place in Van der Noot's Theatre, ‘an argument both profitable and delectable to all that sincerely love the word of God,’ as the title tells us, but they were not at all in their place in the Complaints. So we can perfectly understand that Spenser, perhaps to keep faith with his publisher, left them out, as not belonging to the kind of poems which he intended to publish in his Complaints. That Spenser, in the edition of his Complaints, did not mention at all the name of Van der Noot, and his ‘Theatre,’ may find its reason in the fact that Van der Noot had returned to the Roman Catholic Church, and, therefore, as an apostate from Protestantism, had fallen into disgrace among the Protestants. This may have been the reason, as well, why Spenser never claimed the translations of the four verses of the Apocalypse, because he never could claim them, without telling that they were translated from Van der Noot, and since Spenser as a Calvinist could not wish his name to be connected any more with that of the Catholic, Van der Noot, he left them unmentioned.

4. Van der Noot and Spenser

The last question which asks our attention is: What was the relation between Spenser and Van der Noot? And: Has Van der Noot exerted any influence on Spenser, and through Spenser on English literature? I know that this question has to be decided in the main by logical inference rather more than by direct facts. But there is some value in logical reasoning. At least once in a while, logical inferences

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 246 do mean something, when applied to creatures pretending to be reasonable beings. For the present purpose I give consideration to the following seven points: (1) The verses of Van der Noot's English edition of his Theatre are the earliest known verses of Spenser. (2) If Van der Noot's Theatre was successful, expressing the deepest thoughts of thousands of persecuted Protestants in several countries of Western Europe, and at the same time making some precious contributions to literature, then this success was at the same time a success for the young Spenser, and an encouragement to him to develop his abilities as a poet, which hardly can be overestimated. (3) The ideas of the Theatre, as Van der Noot laid them before the young Spenser, and explained them to him, these great ideas of the world's vanity, of the struggle and sufferings of Christians, and of their final triumph, and their eternal happiness, have remained with Spenser; they have formed the center of his life-system, and are to be found in all his later works. (4) In Van der Noot the young Spenser found just the leading spirit he needed for the development of his genius - a man who combined the high literary taste of the Rennaissance, with the religious struggle of the Reformation, a beautiful combination, which in Spenser's later works came to such a mighty development. Neither a pure humanist, dwelling one-sidedly on the literature of Greece and Rome, nor a simple Reformed preacher, forgetting in his religious zeal the value of literary beauty, but both combined in one human consciousness, the deep religious ideas of the Reformation, and the finest humanistic taste for art

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and literature, that was what the developing genius of Spenser needed, and that was what he must have admired in the author of the Theatre. The young Spenser, says Grosart - and he studied Spenser - was ‘quickened and fired by Van der Noot.’1 (5) Twenty years after the publication of the Theatre, Spenser still cherished these first poems so much that he added to them several more of the same kind, under the title of the ‘World's Vanity’ in his Complaints, although at that time it must have been with feelings of sorrow that Spenser recalled his early acquaintance with the Dutch nobleman, of such high education and learning, now long since returned to the Catholic Church, the man in whose service he had gained his first success as a poet and his first great encouragement in the field of poetry. (6) During these twenty years, Spenser wrote his Shepherd's Calendar, with the Eclogue for September, in which we find the dialogue between Diggon Davie and Hobbinol. This Diggon Davie is, according to Kirk's Glasse, ‘the very friend of the author and this friend had been long in foreign countries.’2 Grosart recognizes in this very friend Spenser's early patron-friend, Van der Noot.3 The whole diologue of Diggon Davie and Hobbinol, says Grosart, is ‘a passionate indictment of Popery, exactly reflecting the Theatre.’4 And after having found Van der Noot's person, as well as Van der Noot's ideas, in Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar, Grosart says, ‘One thinks the more of Spenser, that he thus warmly celebrated his early patron-friend.’5

1 Grosart, Spenser's Works, I. p. 25. 2 Grosart, p. 27. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid., p. 28.

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(7) After the example of Van der Noot as he appeared in 1569, as a Protestant refugee, a nobleman, a learned humanist, the author of the Theatre, Spenser's genius has developed through all his later life as we see in his works. When Van der Noot and Spenser met together, Van der Noot was at the highest point of his fame, and of his ability, while Spenser was just at that age which is so apt for great impressions, which often is so decisive for life, and therefore we may ask: Has there been anybody, of whom we have knowledge that probably had a more important and a more deciding influence on Spenser than Van der Noot? And is not the spirit of the Theatre hauntingly present in the works of Spenser?

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Chapter XXVIII The ‘Bee Hive of the Romish Church,’ by Marnix of St. Aldegonde

With the exception of Erasmus' Praise of Folly, there is probably no other book written in the sixteenth century which found so many readers among the Protestants, as the biting satire of Marnix of St. Aldegonde, published under the title of ‘The Beehive.’ The author of this book, Philip of Marnix, Lord of St. Aldegonde, commonly called ‘Marnix’ or ‘St. Aldegonde,’ or Marnix of St. Aldegonde, was born at Brussels in the year 1538, studied at the University of Louvain, and at Geneva under Calvin and Beza. After having returned to the Netherlands, he became one of the leaders in the revolt against Spain, and by his writings one of the best defenders of Protestantism. He defended the image-breaking of 1566, and fled from the country when, in 1567, the duke of Alva came to the Netherlands. All his possessions were confiscated, and he himself was condemned to death. During five years, from 1567 until 1572, he lived in exile, most of the time in Germany, and it was during this time that he wrote his ‘ van Nassauwe,’ the most beautiful national hymn of the Dutch people, and his famous satire against the Roman Catholic Church entitled, ‘De Byencorf der H. Romische Kercke’ (The Beehive of the H. Roman Catholic Church). After his return to the Netherlands he appears as one of the most

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 250 intimate friends of the Prince of Orange, who often employed him for diplomatic missions and at last made him, in 1583, first burgomaster or governor of Antwerp. But when, during the year 1585, he had been forced to surrender the city to the Spaniards, he retired to his country place at Sauburg in Zealand, and after that time devoted himself entirely to his studies. During the last years of his life, when he was appointed by the States General to prepare a new translation of the Bible, he moved to Leyden, where he died in 1598, after having finished only a small part of this work. ‘He was a poet of much vigor and imagination, a prose writer whose style was surpassed by that of none of his contemporaries, a diplomatist in whose tact and delicacy William of Orange reposed in the most difficult and important negotiations, an orator whose discourses on many great public occasions attracted the attention of Europe, a soldier whose bravery was to be attested on many a well-fought field, a theologian so skillful in the polemics of divinity that he was more than a match for a bench of bishops upon their own ground, and a scholar so accomplished that besides speaking and writing the classical and several modern languages with facility he had also translated for popular use the Psalms of David into vernacular verse, and at a very late period of his life was requested by the States-General of the republic to translate all the Scriptures, a work the fulfillment of which was prevented by his death.’ ‘His device, Repos ailleurs, finely typified the restless, agitated and laborious life to which he was destined.’1

1 J.L. Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic, Vol. I, Part II, Chapter VI. The best monographs on the life and works of St. Aldegonde are those of Edgar Quinet, Th. Juste, Alberdinck Thym, J. van der Have, and especially G. Tjalma. The works of St. Aldegonde are published in seven volumes with introduction by E. Quinet at Brussels, 1857-1860. His religious and ecclesiastic writings in Dutch were collected and republished in four vols., with introduction by J.J. Torenenbergen, The Hague, 1878.

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His great satire, ‘The Beehive,’ was an answer to a letter published by Gentian Hervet, Bishop of Bois le Duc, in which letter an endeavor was made to convince the Protestants of their error in leaving the Roman Catholic Church. In the form of a commentary to that letter St. Aldegonde submits all the peculiar dogmas, and the whole policy of the Roman Catholic Church, to the most subtle criticism, taking himself the appearance of a defender, and in that way producing a biting satire, in which he compared the Roman Catholic Church to a bee hive, and the pope, the cardinals, the bishops, monks, and priests to the different kinds of bees every kind with its own sundry qualities. Some of these bees, he says (alluding to cardinals and bishops) live in the neighborhood of their king and ‘how much the nearer they approach to the king so much the thicker and rounder they commonly grow.’ Others live a more solitary life, and these bees, therefore, ‘are called with the Greek word Monachi.’ Another kind are horseflies, wasps and hornets (the common priests) with this difference, that they do not settle themselves on horses, but on sheep (the people of their congregation), on which they, ‘for fear of being entangled in the fleece, first bite away the wool, after that their skinne, and lastly do suckle their blood, to which they are wonderfully adjected.’ As the subject of this book touched the great struggle between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, and as the literary form of it was very attractive, and its author one of the most learned men of his age, we do not wonder that everywhere the Protestants were anxious to read this book, the fame of which soon spread over all Western Europe. After the first three editions in Dutch, in 1569,

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1572 and 1674, a German translation followed in 1576, and an English version in 1578. The title of the first English edition is: ‘Bee Hive of the Romish Church, a Worke of all Good Catholiks too be read, and most necessary to be understoode, wherein both the Catholike religion is substantially confirmed, and the heretikes finely fetcht over the coales. Translated from Dutch by George Gilpin the Elder.’ After this first English edition there followed at least three later ones, viz., in 1580, 1623 and 1636. One of the year 1598 is declared by Van Torenenbergen to be probably the same as that of 1578, the year 1598 being a printer's error in the catalogue of Alfred Russell Smith, at London, for 1578. In Dutch this book has appeared since it was first published in at least twenty-eight editions, and in German in at least fourteen. For the Huguenots in France, St. Aldegonde wrote his elaborate work, ‘Tableu des differens de la Religion,’ treating to a large extent the same subject, in which the author, after the example of Rabelais, uses as skillfully the weapon of satire. Nevertheless, some authors maintain that the Bee Hive also was translated into French.1 That St. Aldegonde, by this work, advanced the cause of Protestantism, not only on the Continent but as well on the British Isles, is without doubt, and also that the work had its influence on the development of satire in every language into which it was translated. And the four English editions show clearly enough that the Beehive of St. Aldegonde was a popular book among English people.

1 Edgar Quinet, Oeuvres de Th. de Marnix, Vol. IV, p. 347, where he quotes the work of Prins.

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Chapter XXIX Descriptions of Voyages. Lucas Janss Waghenaer, Bernard Langhenes, Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, William Cornelis Schouten, Gerrit de Veer, Hendrik Tollens.

Descriptions of voyages have formed for centuries in the most natural way a typical part of the literature read by the English. A nation destined to ‘rule the waves,’ a nation whose country is surrounded by the sea, learned through all generations to enjoy voyages; a nation, whose sons looked from their earliest youth to the sea for their future success in life, must enjoy and favor every kind of story relating to the bravery and the success, the dangers and the tragedies, the heroism and the sufferings, of those who sailed with their ships to the remotest corners of the globe, and coming home brought with them trophies of their trade or their robberies, as well as thrilling stories of their wonderful experiences. From the ‘Voiage and Trevaile’ (1300-1372) until the time that the last of the one hundred and twenty volumes of the Hakluyt Society was published, English literature is full of ‘voyages and travels,’ which give abundant proof of this typical characteristic of the English nation. Among these descriptions of voyages are some translations from the Dutch, which have played a very important and interesting part, not only as a much cherished amusement for the reading classes in England but as an incentive to the develop-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 254 ment of English maritime power. Within the short but deciding period, from the year 1590 until 1620, we find the following books, and perhaps others, translated from the Dutch: (1) Lucas Janss Waghenaer (1550-1600), Mariners Mirrour. This book is mentioned by P.A. Tiele in his introduction to The Voyage of John Huyghen Linschoten, p. XXVII, as a translation of Waghenaer's Spiegel der Seevaert, published by C. Plantyn, Leyden, 1584. (2) Bernard Langhenes - The description of a voyage made by certain Ships of Holland into the East Indies - who set forth on the 2nd of April, 1595, and returned on the 14th of August, 1597. Printed by John Woolfe, 1598. ‘In his dedication to this work, of which the original was written by Bernard Langhenes, Phillip announces a translation of Linschoten's voyages.’1 This work was translated by William Phillip. (3) John Huyghen van Linschoten, his discours of voyages into ye Easte and West Indies. Devided into foure books. Printed at London by John Woolfe (1598); on the title pages of the second, third and fourth books of which work the initials W.P. (William Phillip) are given as those of the translator. ‘In the advertisement to the reader in this work (copies of which have sold as high as ten pounds, fifteen shillings) it is stated that the Booke being commended by Maister Richard Hakluyt, a man that laboureth greatly to advance our English name and nation, the printer thought good to cause the same to be translated into the English tongue.’2 Reprinted by the Hakluyt Society in two volumes, London, 1885, with introduction of P.A. Thiele.

1 Charles T. Beke, in his introduction to the work of Gerrit de Veer, p. CXXXIX. 2 Ibid.

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(4) Gerrit de Veer - A true description of three voyages by the North-East towards Cathay and China, undertaken by the Dutch in the years 1594, 1595 and 1596, published at Amsterdam in the year 1598, and in 1609 translated into English by William Phillip. This book is reprinted in 1853 for the Hakluyt Society and edited by Charles T. Beke. (5) William Cornelison Schouten. The Relation of a wonderfull Voyage made by William Cornelison Schouten of Horne, Shewing how South from the Straights of Magellan in Terra del Fuego, he found and discovered a newe passage through the great South Sea, and that way seyled round about the World - Describing what Islands, Countries, People and strange Adventures he found in his saide Passage. London, imprinted by T.D. for Nathaneel Newberry, 1619. ‘This English edition,’ says Beke, is exceedingly rare.’1 Of these five books, those of Van Linschoten, De Veer and Schouten are by far the most important. That of Langhenes I have found mentioned only by Beke in his introduction to that of De Veer; that of Lucas Jan Waghenaer is mentioned, in the Dutch edition, by Van der Aa's Dutch Biography under the name of Waghenaer. That of William Cornelis Schouten, however, who died in 1625, I have found in not less than twenty-five editions, of which seventeen are in Dutch, five in French, one in Latin, one in German and one in English. The importance of this work lies in what is mentioned in the title about the discovery of ‘a newe passage through the great South Sea.’ Far more important is that of De Veer, relat-

1 Charles T. Beke in his introduction to the work of De Veer, p.c., XXXIX.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 256 ing the three voyages by Dutch ships in 1594, 1595 and 1596, which were trying to find a new passage to China and India through the North-East, around the Northern coast of Russia. Especially the thrilling narrative of the third one of these voyages, in which William Barends was the commander, and in which this daring mariner, with his little company, was forced to stay a whole winter on Nova Sembla, has gained a world-wide fame. The struggle of these stubborn and daring explorers, against the intense cold of an arctic winter, against the attacks of polar bears and against other difficulties, is so interesting, and is described with such a naive simplicity, that it is retold in hundreds of books, and forever belongs to the most interesting literature of the kind in the world. Gerrit de Veer, himself one of the little company of Barends, describes the first of the three voyages, as published in the English edition of the Hakluyt Society, in thirty-eight pages, the second voyage in thirty pages, while all the rest of the book, covering two hundred and forty-two pages, is devoted to the third voyage. The building of a cabin, the accident that befel two of the company who were devoured by a bear, the sickness and death of Barends himself, the return in open boats from Nova Sembla to Kola on the White sea, a distance of about six hundred miles, are some of the most interesting parts of the story. More than two hundred years after this voyage, the Dutch poet, Hendrik Tollens (1780-1856) made the story a subject of one of his poems (‘De overwintering op Nova Sembla’), and this poem, too, is translated into English in 1860 by ‘Anglo-Saxon’ and entitled: ‘The Hollanders in Nova-Sembla - An Arctic poem.’ There exist at least three Dutch editions of the

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 257 work of De Veer, in 1598, 1605 and 1619; one in Latin in 1598, four editions in French in 1598, 1599, 1600 and 1609; and one in English. Several abridgments of the work are published in German, one in Latin, and one in English, in the third volume of Purchas' collection. Short abstracts of the work have been published in Dutch, Latin, German, French and English, and all these editions are mentioned in the introduction to the English edition as published by the Hakluyt Society in 1853. But the most important of all, is the book of Van Linschoten. Jan Huyghen van Linschoten was born at Haarlem, probably in the year 1560. His portrait has: ‘Anno 1595 aet 32,’ and this should indicate as the year of his birth 1563. But all the stories of his life tell that in the year 1576 he went to Spain as a boy of sixteen years, which brings the year of his birth back to 1560. And, as it is much more probable that he left home at sixteen than at thirteen, I rather believe that he was born in 1560. Probably about the year 1573, before or after the siege and conquest of Haarlem by the Spaniards, his parents moved to Enkhuizen, one of the first cities which fell into the hands of the Sea-Beggars, and was held for the Prince of Orange. Enkhuizen, to day one of the dead cities on the Zuider Zee, was at that time one of the best sea ports of the Netherlands and one of the centers of Dutch trade and fishery. ‘We learn from John that two brothers of his some years previous to the year 1576 had gone to Spain and established themselves probably in business at Seville. In spite of the war between the two nations, commercial relations were still maintained, and could not well be abandoned by either side, as the Dutch market was then indispensable to the prosperity of the Indian

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 258 trade of Spain and Portugal.’1 As a boy of sixteen years, in 1576, he left the home of his parents to join his brothers in Spain, and he did not return to Enkhuizen before the year 1592, ‘after an absence of thirteen years.’2 If he really left home in 1576, and returned in 1592, his absence must have been not thirteen but sixteen years. But, however this may be, he stayed for six or seven years in Spain, and in Portugal in the house of a merchant at Lisbon; went in 1583 to India in the suite of Vincente de Fonseca, the newly appointed Archbishop of Goa, where the young Van Linschoten stayed for five years. During the years he spent in Spain and Portugal and in India, he studied not only the Spanish and Portuguese languages, but especially all the maps and books of the Spaniards and Portuguese about the route to India, and the countries of the far East, which at that time, were, in great part, entirely unknown to the Dutch and the English. And after he had returned to Enkhuizen in 1592, where he found that his father had died long ago, but his mother, brother and sister were in good health, he began to compile all his notes and maps for a book, to which he gave the title of ‘Intinerario,’ and in which he set forth the precious information which he had gained in his voyages. This book put an end to the monopoly which the Spaniards and Portuguese enjoyed of the trade with East India, and became the cause of the establishing of the Dutch, and of the English, East-Indian-Companies. This ‘Itinerario,’ the great work of Van Linschoten, is divided into three parts. The first part, being the Itinerario proper, is that which in 1885 was reprinted by the Hakluyt

1 P.A. Thiele, Introduction to ‘The Voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten to the East Indies. Ed. Hakluyt Society, 1885, p. XXIII. 2 Ibid., p. XXIX.

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Society in two volumes. For this part the author received the assistance of Bernard ten Broeke, whose name, after the manner of the time, was Latinized into Paludanus. The second part, containing ‘a collection of the routes to India, the Eastern seas and the American coasts, was translated from the manuscripts of Spanish and Portuguese pilots; and is, in particular, full of details on the routes beyond Malacca, in the Malay Archipelago and on the Chinese coasts. It is by this compilation that Linschoten rendered his countrymen the most direct benefit.’1 ‘The third part consists of a short description of the eastern and western coasts of Africa, with a more ample description of America.’2 The maps of the Itinerario were declared to be from ‘the most correct charts that the Portuguese pilots nowadays make use of.’ ‘From a careful comparison of some parts,’ says Thiele, ‘with the earlier printed maps, I can affirm that this claim is no vain boast, but the simple truth.’3 The second part, as being most needed by the Dutch and English, was printed first of all in 1595, and immediately used on voyages to India, before the whole work of Van Linschoten was published in 1596. After having so far finished his work that it was ready for the press, Van Linschoten himself took part in the two first voyages around the North-East, described in the work of Gerrit de Veer, as mentioned above, but when he had come back from that second voyage, he took no further active part in maritime expeditions, although his interest in them remained unabated.4 The flourishing seaport of Enkhuizen where he found such congenial friends as Paludanus,

1 P.A. Thiele, p. XXX. 2 Ibid., p. XXXI. 3 Ibid.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 260 and Lucas Jansz Waghenaer, attracted him so much that he settled there, and was appointed treasurer of the town. In 1606 we find his name among the members of the committee for the establishing of a West-India-Company. He died on the 8th of February, 1611, at the age of fifty-one years. His ‘Itinerario’ was in some respects a revelation. ‘After its publication, every one learned that the colonial empire of the Portuguese was rotten, and that an energetic rival would have every chance of supplanting them. Its importance met with speedy and extensive recognition. English and German translations were published in 1598; two Latin translations (one at Frankfort and one at Amsterdam) in 1599; a French translation in 1610. The latter as well as the original Dutch was more than once reprinted. For long the book was constantly quoted as an authority.’1

4 P.A. Thiele, p. XXXVII. 1 Ibid., XL.

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Chapter XXX Religious Literature. Brownists, Separatists or Independents, Baptists, Congregationalists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Methodists.

The influence of religious ideas and movements on the literature of a nation can hardly be overestimated, and yet is often treated with very moderate attention. In Dante's Divine Comoedia we should not have a Purgatory if Dante had not been a Roman Catholic; Voltaire never would have written his many satires, full of literary beauty, if he had not been an eighteenth century Rationalist and Deist; Milton's Paradise Lost and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress are inseparably connected with the ideas of the Independents, and with the religious struggle of the different Protestant denominations in England during the seventeenth century. That great religious struggle of the Reformation, as far as the whole people took part, in it, developed in England much later than in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. In the latter countries it happened during the sixteenth century, while at that time in England the great event was only the establishing of the Anglican Church. But the real Reformation, among and by the masses of the English people, the real struggle for Presbyterianism, for Congregationalism, for the Baptist views, took place in the seventeenth century, against the Party of the Stuarts. That struggle, although preparing its way since the last

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 262 part of the sixteenth century, found its historical zenith in the time of Cromwell, and got at last its final decision in the glorious Revolution of 1688 under William III of Orange. Before the deciding period of the real Reformation in England arrived, during a great part of the sixteenth, and the beginning of the seventeenth century, the continual influence of Protestant ideas introduced from the Continent, and especially from the Netherlands, was working among the masses of the English people, preparing the way for the different religious denominations, which were destined to play such an important part in later English history, and to find their adequate reflection in English literature. During the persecutions under Charles V, beginning immediately after the edict of Worms in 1521, with the introduction of the inquisition in the Netherlands, thousands fled from that country, and a great part of them, most of whom were Anabaptists, took refuge in England. At the time of the arrival of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands in 1567, probably one hundred thousand people fled from the country, half of them crossing the channel to find safety in England. They all settled at London, and in the eastern districts of England, where, during centuries, for economic reasons, Dutch settlements had existed. These thousands of Protestant refugees were for a great part Anabaptists, preaching rejection of infant baptism, separation from the established church, priesthood of all believers, the formation of churches by ‘a company of Christians or believers who, by a willing covenant made with their God, are under the government of God and Christ and keep His laws in one holy communion,’ as Robert Browne defines it. Now refugees, who sacrifice everything for the principles they

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 263 confess, are always the most zealous and most successful propagandists, because they show with their lives the sincerity of their preaching. And the mass of the English people was ripe for these numerous and sincere missionaries of Dutch Protestantism. The University of Cambridge, which is nearer to these eastern districts in England, happened to be the most progressive one, and among its graduates we soon find learned men, who adopted the Continental Protestant ideas of the refugees, and who became natural leaders of the new movement in England. Robert Browne was the first prominent man of the kind, and after him the first converted English people were called either Brownists, or, because they preached separation from the established church. Separatists, or, as they propagated the independency of the churches from the state, they were also called Independents. Among those people who were variously called Brownists, or Separatists, or Independents, as soon as they became more numerous, churches were formed, to which they themselves gave the names either of Baptists, where they laid stress on the rejection of infant baptism, or of Congregationalists, where the equality of the members, and the priesthood of all believers was put in the foreground. It is here that we find the first beginning of the denominations of Baptists and Congregationalists, today so numerous in England and America. Later we find the rise of the Quakers under George Fox, and William Penn, and still later that of the Methodists, under Wesley and Whitefield, while at the same time the Presbyterians became powerful all over England and Scotland. Finally in the eighteenth century we see in England the rise of Rationalism and Deism, and after that time the development of Pantheism.

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It is interesting to trace the influence of the Netherlands on the rise and development of every one of these religious movements. To begin with the Brownists, those first, Separatists or Independents, as they were called, we know that Robert Browne, after being graduated from Cambridge, began to preach, and that ‘the vehemence of his character gained him a reputation with the people,’ and ‘being a fiery, hotheaded young man, he went about the countries inveighing against the discipline and ceremonies of the Church, and exhorting the people by no means to comply with them.’1 We know that he became the founder of those first Separatist Churches, which were called Brownists, or Barrowists. In the year 1592 the Brownists were estimated by Walter Raleigh to number twenty thousand2 and they were soon divided into those who called themselves Congregationalists, and others who called themselves Baptists. And about this same Robert Browne, the founder of the Separatists or Independents, and more especially of the Congregationalists and Baptists, we read that after he left Cambridge University, he lived ‘for about a year among some Dutch emigrants in the diocese of Norfolk,’3 and that he, persecuted by the bishops, ‘retired with several friends to Zealand, at Middelburg.’ ‘In that then cradle of liberty, they constituted themselves into a church;’ and the press being unrestrained in the Netherlands, the pastor published his doctrine in a book entitled: ‘A book which showeth the life and Manners of all true Christians; and how unlike they are unto Turks and Papists and Heathen folk.4 Also the Points and Parts of all Di-

1 Daniel Neal. The History of the Puritans. Vol. I, p. 149. 2 Ibid., p. 198. 3 Benjamin Hanbury. Historical memorials relating to the Independents or Congregationalists. Vol. I, p. 19.

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4 Ibid, p. 19. This book of Robert Browne was printed at Middelburg by Richard Painter in the year 1582.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 265 vinity, that is, of the revealed Will and Word of God, are declared by their several Definitions and Divisions, in order as followeth, etc.’ An outline of this fundamental book for all the further development of Congregationalism and Baptism is given by Hanbury.1 So we see that from the very first starting point Robert Browne adopted the ideas of the Dutch Anabaptist refugees in England, and developed his ideas in founding the English Separatist Church at Middelburg, where they were protected by the special order of William the Silent, and where Browne found an opportunity to develop his ideas, to write his books, and have them printed, whence they were spread over England. In England every endeavor to establish a Separatist congregation was prevented, but in the Netherlands, at Middelburg, Separatists found refuge and protection as early as the year 1581. In her dealings with the origins of the powerful denominations of Congregationalists and Baptists, Queen Elizabeth did not show serself the so-often-praised ‘Good Queen Beth,’ but a bloody, persecuting sovereign, a woman careless about religion, who swore like a soldier every day,2 while her separatist subjects sighed in prison or were put to death.3 It was during the last twenty years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, that many of the Separatists (Brownists, Independents) fled to the Netherlands, while after the death of Elizabeth, under James I, many more followed their example. Amsterdam became, after Middelburg, the place of refuge, and soon the greatest center of the English Separatists, and after 1609 Leyden also gave hospitality to a

1 Hanbury. I, p. 20-22. 2 The expression ‘By God's son’ was always on her lips. 3 Neal, I, 201. The two ministers, Greenwood and Penry, are well known among those first martyrs of English Indenpendentism.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 266 number of them, who formed a congregation under the well-known leaders John Robinson and William Brewster. This congregation at Leyden was that of the Pilgrims, a part of whom in the year 1620 crossed the ocean on the Mayflower and landed at Plymouth rock.1 Although the ideas of all these English Separatists did not differ very much; and approached those of the Anabaptists, as they were recognized and taught by Menno Simons (1492-1559), their eminent leader; yet some of them laid more stress upon a congregational form of church government; others put in the foreground the rejection of infant baptism, and other questions; and so it happened that, under their different ministers, they laid the foundations for different denominations. The churches at MIDDELBURG and LEYDEN are to be considered as THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES, while at AMSTERDAM in the year 1611 a number of the ENGLISH SEPARATISTS CALLED THEMSELVES BAPTISTS. But as soon as it was safe to return to England, these people crossed the Channel again, and in the year 1611 THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH WENT FROM AMSTERDAM TO ENGLAND, while in 1616 the First Congregational Church was established in the British Isles. The movement of the Friends, or, as they soon were called, the QUAKERS began several years later, but was no less under the influence of Holland than were the first Congregationalists and Baptists. The two great founders of Quakerism were George Fox and William Penn.

1 The history of the Pilgrims has been too often told to be repeated here, even in an outline. See W.E. Griffith. The Pilgrims in their three homes, Boston and New York, 1898; and Alexander Mackenal, Homes and Haunts of the Pilgrim Fathers, London, 1899. The works of Neal, Henry Dexter, Samuel Hopkins, Bartlett, Douglas Campbell, and many others on Puritanism, Independentism and Congregationalism are at hand in every library. See also the articles in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica on Independents, etc.

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Speaking of George Fox, the English founder of the sect, Barclay, the best authority upon the subject, himself a member of the Society, says, in a discussion of the doctrines of the Menonites: ‘So closely do these views correspond with those of George Fox, that we are compelled to view him viz., Menno Simons as the unconscious exponent of the doctrine, practice, and discipline of the ancient and strict party of the Dutch Mennonites, at a period when, under the pressure of the times, some deviation took place among the General Baptists from their original principles.’1 It is an interesting fact in this connection that Sewel's History of the Quakers, the pioneer book upon this subject, was written in Dutch. Sewel was born at Amsterdam in 1654, and in his family we have the pedigree of the Quakers. His grandfather was an English Brownist, or Separatist. His father became a Baptist, and so continued until 1657, when he joined the Quakers.’2. To this interesting fact, mentioned by Campbell, we may add another equally as interesting one; viz., that an English translation of several works of Menno Simons was published in the year 1863 by Elias Barr and Co., at Lancaster in Pennsylvania, the State of the Quakers, and all the works of Menno Simons were translated into English and published in 1871 at Elkhart, Indiana, a state in which many Quakers from Pennsylvania have settled. ‘Thus it is,’ says Campbell, ‘that the Quakers of England trace their descent back through the English Separatists to the Mennonites of Holland. But for those of America there is even a closer connection. William Penn's mother was a Dutch woman, and a

1 Barcay's Inner Life, p. 77, quoted by Douglas Campbell. The Puritans, II, 207. 2 Ibid.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 268 very notable one, the daughter of John Jasper of Rotterdam, ‘Dutch Peg,’ according to Pepys, the charming gossip, had more wit than her English husband, who, at the time of their marriage, was a captain in the navy, soon to become an admiral.1 Her son, the founder of Pennsylvania, was, like Roger Williams, a thorough Dutch scholar. He had travelled extensively in Holland, and preached to the Quakers of that country in their native tongue.’2 The indebtedness of the METHODISTS, as adherents of that great movement in America which numbers more than forty-six thousand churches, are called, to the Netherlands, is not less important, and is recognized in almost every book on the history of Methodism. With the exception of the Welsh branch, the Methodists from the time of Wesley have adopted the Arminian doctrine, and from the start found all the sources for their fundamental ideas ready in the elaborate works of the Dutch Arminians. Holland was the home of Arminians and of the great struggle between and Calvinism which culminated in the first period in the famous Synod of Dordrecht in the years 1618 and 1619. ‘That little country,’ says Curtiss in his book on Arminianism in History, ‘on the northwest coast of Europe, which had been rescued from the sea by the hard and persistent labor of the people, was the early home of two great classes of thought, founded upon a solid basis - Puritanism and Arminianism.’ The great classic authors of Arminianism and consequently of Methodism, men like Jacobus Arminius, Simon Episcopius, Hugo Grotius, and many others, are to be found in the Netherlands, and their lives and works

1 Pepy's Diary, II. 160, quoted by Campbell. The Puritans, II, 207. 2 Life of William Penn, by Jauney, Dixon, etc., quoted by Campbell, II, 208.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 269 are inseparably connected with the history of Holland. After the Synod of Dordrecht in 1618 and 1619, the Arminian ministers had to leave the country, so that they became missionaries of Arminianism, but this banishment, or persecution, as we may call it, although in a milder sense than the word persecution had in those days, did not last very long, and was not more severe than what the Arminian magistrates in cities like Schoonhoven, Utrecht, Rotterdam and other places had attempted before the Synod of Dordrecht. The political head and leader of the Arminians had even tried in 1617 with his ‘Sharp resolve,’ to raise troops for the Province of Holland against the States General, and so really to break the union of the state in a period when that union was more necessary, than it was for the United States at the time of the civil war. We must therefore not be surprised, when immediately after the Synod of Dordt, which was a triumph of the Calvinists over the Arminians, at least for a short time, some measures were taken against the Arminians. Very soon the Remonstrant ministers were admitted again to the country, and in 1634 a Remonstrant's College was opened at Amsterdam, which college became a great nursery for Arminian theology, where several of the best Arminian scholars laid the foundations for the great Arminian movement, which later developed in England and America. There in Amsterdam we find the prominent Arminian professors and scholars, Simon Episcopius, Stephanus Curcellaeus, Arnold Poelenburg, Philip Limborch, John Le Clerc, Adrian van Cattenburgh, and John James Wettstein. In most books on the history of Arminianism, little stress is laid on the name of one man who, however, played a very important part in the movement, the

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 270 man who really converted and strengthened Jacobus Arminius, at a time when Arminius himself was sceptical and hesitant about which direction to take, on those questions which later on divided the Calvinists from the Arminians. This man was Dirk Volkerts Coornhert, who, therefore, deserves the title of spiritual father of Arminianism. Coornhert was a great scholar and a man of great literary and philosophical ability, who, in the most troublesome time of the great struggle for liberty, took a place of honor. Born at Amsterdam in 1522, he studied several languages, French, Spanish, Greek and Latin; was personally acquainted with William the Silent, who in 1567 invited him to his castle Dillenburg, to advise him about the situation in the Netherlands; he suffered exile and even imprisonment from the Spaniards, while his wife horror-stricken, died of the plague; held about the same broadminded ideas of toleration even towards Roman Catholics in Protestant cities, which were held by the Prince of Orange; and as far as Arminianism is concerned, had several disputes, and even public debates, with Calvanistic ministers, amongst others with Professor Saravia of the Leyden University, long before Arminius appeared on the stage of history. And when Arminius, at that time still estimated as a good Calvinist, and a great scholar, was appointed to try to convert Coornhert, it happened that the old well-trained scholar and philosopher, was a too powerful match for the young Arminius, who, instead of converting Coornhert, was himself converted to the principles of Coornhert. This spiritual father of Arminius, and of Arminianism, died at Gouda in the year 1590. In the Dutch national biography of Van der Aa is given a list of forty-four books and pamphlets, political, theological, and literary, written by

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature t.o. 270

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Coornhert, too many to be repeated here. Since the days of Coornhert and Arminius, the line of Arminian scholars has never been interrupted, and since Wesley started his movement in England, and Methodism spread all over England and America, the Arminian scholars have always found and will always find, in the Netherlands, not only the cradle of Arminianism, but also the great classics of Arminianism, to whose scholarly investigations they have to go back, to find out that nowadays there is not much that is new under the sun. In his book on Arminianism in History, George L. Curtiss, on p. 70, makes a statement that has a strange sound to those who are acquainted with Dutch history, and especially with the struggle between Calvinism and Arminianism. He says: ‘The Calvinists demanded the support of the State and that there should not be toleration of other sentiments; the Arminians demanded that there should be perfect toleration, and that the State should not decide the one or the other as being true.’ This statement is not true to history. The author himself knows it, and shows that he knows better, when he writes on page 154; ‘The Arminians, while denying predestination, proclaimed a practical theory which was more important to the people than any gone before in the struggle to found a republic. They claimed that in religious matters the State was supreme, that it should appoint the ministers, and that it alone should have the regulation of Church discipline and dogma.’ The truth is that all parties and all denominations at that time, Roman Catholics, Calvinists and Arminians were intolerant, that none of them believed in equal freedom for every denomination, and that they all claimed the power of the State to give their own denomination the

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 272 predominant place and to suppress every other opinion. Only very few men were far enough ahead of their time to declare themselves in favor of real toleration. William the Silent, the father of his country, and Coornhert, the father of Arminianism, are two examples of men who stood for toleration in a very early period of the great struggle, and they were great exceptions. The fact is that as far as the practical application of the principle of toleration is concerned, there was not a state in the world during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, where a greater freedom and toleration was given to every denomination than the Reformed State of the Netherlands; consequently the refugees from all countries fled to the Netherlands. And another surprising fact is, that, even till in our present time, the principle of intolerance has been maintained in Art. 36 of the Confession of the Dutch Reformed Church, and even in the Confession of the free reformed, or Separatist-churches in Holland, notwithstanding the gravamina of the most prominent theologians against that article, a fact very interesting from a psychological point of view. At a time when the fundamental ideas of Arminianism, and consequently of Methodism, were still in their first period of growth, there was a fully-developed set of principles, inspiring the life of hundreds of churches in France, in Holland, in England, and in Scotland. These principles, first systematically explained in the Institutes of John Calvin, were then adopted by the Huguenots in France, by the Reformed in the Netherlands, and by THE PRESBYTERIANS in England and Scotland. These principles were called CALVINISM after the great leader of the movement, John Calvin, just as Arminianism later on was so named after Ar-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 273 minius. And this movement too had its greatest stronghold for a long time in the Netherlands. At a time when the Huguenots in France, and the Puritans, later the Presbyterians in England and Scotland, were subject to the severest persecutions, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands were flourishing. Refugees from France and from England fled to the hospitable shores of the United Provinces, and found there the full development and practice of the same principles, which the persecuting powers in France and in England were trying to extirpate. In that Calvinism was, according to the best historians,1 the strength of the resistance of Holland, in its struggle against Spain. The famous National Synod of Dordt in 1618 and 1619 was Calvinistic through and through, and at the same time the only real ecumenic counsel of the Protestant churches ever held, as it included delegates from churches of all the nations where Calvinistic Protestantism had got any foothold, except the French churches, whose seats in the Synod remained empty, because the French king did not allow them to be represented. That Synod was the forerunner, and the foundation of the great Westminster Assembly held twenty years later. It was not only by this Synod of Dordt, and by Dutch influence on refugees, but especially by the great number of scholars and professors in the Dutch Universities that Holland took a leading part in the development of Presbyterianism. The Universities of Leyden, founded in 1574, Utrecht, founded in 1636, Groningen, founded in 1614, and Franeker, founded in 1624, were the strongholds of Calvinism; and many students from England came to the Netherlands, especially to

1 On this point all the best historians of Holland, as Groen van Prinsterer and Robert Fruin, Bakhuizen van den Brink and Blok, agree.

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Leyden, to follow the courses, and to imbibe the republican and Calvinistic spirit prevailing in ‘the Low Countries.’ Books by Dutch professors were commonly written in Latin, the international language of the scholars of that time, so that the Dutch language presented no obstacle at all. By the agency of English ministers, among whom were many good scholars, Dutch Calvinism and closely connected with it, Dutch , and democracy, entered into the English churches, into the life and the spirit of the English people, and were reflected in English literature.

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Chapter XXXI Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Jacobus Struys. The Morality Plays in the Netherlands

In Modern Philology of July, 1906, Mr. Harold de Wolf Fuller published an extensive article on Romeo and Juliet, on the first page of which he says: ‘At the present time, the only recognized sources of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet are Arthur Brooke's long poem, Romeus and Juliet published in 1562, and William Painter's novel, contained in his Palace of Pleasures, 1566-67, both of these works being based directly on a French novel by Boaistuau, written in 1559. Painter's story is merely a close prose translation, whereas the poem shows a much freer handling of its original; of the two productions, it was chiefly from the poem that Shakespeare drew his material. But in addition to these two sources, there seems to have existed once in England a pre-Shakespearian play on this subject. Brief mention of it is made in the address to the reader which Brooke prefixed to his poem. He says: ‘Though I saw the same argument lately set forth on stage with more commendation than I can look for (being there much better set forth than I have or can do) yet the same matter penned as it is, may serve the like good effect.’ Unfortunately, this play seems to have been short-lived in England, for no other explicit reference to it has been found, and, so far as we are aware, it is no longer extant. The important part, therefore, which

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 276 it may have played in the history of the drama, and the influence which it may have exerted on Shakespeare have remained hitherto matters of profitless speculation: ‘But though this play in its original form be irrevocably lost, we shall find, I think, that it has been fairly well preserved in a foreign application; namely, in the Romeo en Juliette, a Dutch play in Alexandrine couplets by Jocob Struys, written about 1630.’1 Mr. De Wolf Fuller tells us nothing more about Jacob Struys, and indeed not much is known about him; only that he was a playwright in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and wrote the following plays: Albonus and Rosamunde, Amsterdam, 1631; Rape of Proserpina, with the wedding of Pluto, Amsterdam, 1634; Styrus and Ariane, Amsterdam, 1642; Romeo and Juliette, Amsterdam, 1634; and Het Amderamsch Juffertje (The young lady of Amsterdam), 1633. All these plays are written in Dutch.2 The Romeo and Juliette was written not only ‘about 1630,’ as De Wolf Fuller says, but more accurately in 1634, and was played on the stage at Christmas of the same year at Amsterdam. In his extensive article, Mr. De Wolf Fuller has succeeded in showing us, that according to Arthur Brooke's statement, there must have been a play on the subject Romeo and Juliet, and that probably this play has been preserved in the later application of the theme by Jacob Struys. But Arthur Brooke does not tell us where he saw it on the stage; whether in England, or in Flanders, where during the time before Shakespeare morality plays were very popular. He does not tell us whether the play, as he saw it, was in English or in Dutch.

1 Modern Philology, July, 1906, p. 1. 2 Van der Aa. Biographical Woordenboek, in voce Jacob Struys.

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And it is a possibility that the original was written in Dutch, as in the case of ‘Elckerlyck and Everyman.’ The enormous number of plays written in Flanders, and in Holland during the fifteenth century, the brilliant ‘land jewels’ in the cities of the Netherlands, where sometimes more than thirty ‘chambers of rhetoric’ went into competition; the great number of playwrights, one of whom, by the name of Mathys de Casteleyne, wrote more than a hundred plays, and in general the whole civilization in which especially the Southern Netherlands were far ahead of England, make us feel as if we, looking for the sources of Shakespearian plays, might find some material to help us among the mass of plays produced in the Low Countries. The able article of De Wolf Fuller has brought us as far as Jacob Struys; he has brought us to the Netherlands, and we have to wait for somebody, who as in the case of Elckerlyck and Everyman, can trace the story further back and perhaps bring us to more discoveries of the same kind. In the fifteenth, and at the beginning of the sixteenth century, general probability is in favor of a source in the Southern Netherlands, on account of the great superiority of civilization there at that time.

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Chapter XXXII Philip Sidney

Hardly any place in the Netherlands is more interesting, more tragic, and more sacred to travelers, who are acquainted with English literature, than the spot on the heath near Zutphen, where on the chilly and misty morning of September 22, 1586, Sir Philip Sidney was fatally wounded, while fighting beside the Dutch sons of liberty, against the soldiers of the Spanish tyrant. Splendid is Sir Philip Sidney's name in English literature, everlasting is the admiration of the civilized world for the author of the Defense of Poetry and of Arcadia, but more than that is the wonderful halo that surrounds his name by reason of his lovely, and beautiful character, and the noble spirit with which without fear he stood for the best cause in literature, as well as on the battlefield. It was that last cause, the deadly struggle for liberty, that forever connected the name of Sidney with that of the Netherlands. Eight years before his death, Sidney was sent by his Queen to the Prince of Orange at Delft to compliment him on the birth of his son, and during that visit the Prince received such a noble impression of him, that later on he sent the English embassador Fulke Granville to Queen Elizabeth to report to her his opinion ‘that her Majesty had one of the ripest and greatest counsellors of estate in Sir Philip Sidney that at this day lived in Europe; to the trial of which he was pleased to leave his own credit en-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 279 gaged until her Majesty might please to employ this gentleman either amongst her friends or enemies.’1. At the time Sidney traveled through Germany and France, he enjoyed the company of Hubert Languet, for a time the private secretary of the Prince of Orange, and most probably the author of the famous ‘Vindiciae contra Tyrannos,’ and perhaps even the author of the ‘Apology’ of the Prince against Philip the Second. When, during the last year of his life Sidney was governor of Flushing, he had under his command the young Roger Williams, about whom he writes to his uncle Leicester, at that time Governor of the Netherlands: ‘Roger Williams beseechest your Excellency to pass him his sergeant-majorship general, with such allowance as shall seem good unto you. Of all nations they do desire him; he is fain to be at charge at Berghen. Your Excellency shall take care of few men that more bravely deserve it, as I hope he will.’2. One of his songs, which was probably written during his abode in the Netherlands, bears the inscription: Song ‘To the tune of Wilhelmus van Nassaue,’ the Dutch national hymn written by Marnix van Sint Aldegonde, who at that time was at Middelburg under the protection of Sydney, and whom he mentions in his letters to Leicester. Sidney knew what it meant to stand at the side of William the Silent, and to fight for the cause of liberty after that great prince had been murdered. He was himself in Paris during the horrible night of St. Bartholomew, on August 24, 1572; his own eyes had seen the massacre of the Huguenots. Nobody was more true to his queen, nobody more frank with her, and from nobody

1 J.A. Symonds, Life of Sidney, p. 41. 2 William Gray, The Miscellaneous Works of Sir Philip Sidney, p. 376.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 280 else would Queen Elizabeth have accepted such frankness; so that in the most critical moments, as for instance when the queen had almost accepted the hand of the Duke of Anjou, Sidney's advice was more courageous and more influential, than that of any one else. He had a personal acquaintance with almost all the leaders of Protestant Europe; he saw the deadly struggle in all its immensity; in his breast, as in that of William the Silent, beat the very heart of Protestantism, and when he fell in battle, it was a loss, not only for England, and for the Netherlands, but for the cause of Protestantism as a whole. He died at the moment when more than ever before he was uniting his own life and fate with that of the Dutch people, in their heroic struggle for freedom and toleration. The people in the Netherlands had great confidence in Philip Sidney and after his death they begged to be allowed to keep his body, and promised to erect a royal monument to his memory, ‘Yea, though the same should cost half a ton of gold in the building.’ But this petition was rejected. His body was brought over to England in a ship, called occasionally the Black Prince, and buried with pomp in St. Paul's cathedral. And the whole nation went into mourning, and for many months it was counted a sin for any gentleman of quality to appear at Court, or in the City, in any light or gaudy apparel.1 ‘Sidney's death sent a thrill through Europe. Leicester, who truly loved him, wrote in words of passionate grief to Walsingham; Elizabeth declared that she had lost her mainstay in the struggle with Spain; Duplessis-Mornay bewailed his loss not for England only, but for all Christendom’2 and the common peo-

1 J.A. Symonds, Sir Philip Sidney, p. 174 and 175.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 281 ple remembered his love and kindness towards them, by his last words to one of his dying soldiers on the battlefield, when he himself, deadly wounded, called for drink, but seeing the soldier, gave the bottle to him with the everlasting words: ‘Thy necessity is greater than mine.’

2 Idem., p. 173.

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Chapter XXXIII Tracts Relating the Execution of John of Oldenbarnevelt in 1619. The Tragedy of Sir John van Olden Barnevelt. A Play Called the Jeweller of Amsterdam.

During the centuries in which the Netherlands played their greatest part in the world's history, all the nations of Europe took interest in what happened in Holland. In many cases pamphlets were written in English, in French, and in German, and sent abroad to spread the news of what happened in Holland among the people in England, France, and Germany. From these pamphlets the narratives often entered into literary circles, where they were taken up as subjects for all kinds of literary productions. So it happened in the year 1619; at a time, when according to R. Boyle ‘Englishmen took more interest in Holland than in any other country in Europe.’1 In May of that year, one of the most tragic events in the history of the Dutch Republic took place. The old, and in many respects eminent, statesman John of Oldenbarnevelt, accused and convicted of high treason, was beheaded at the Hague, after a splendid and hardly ever equalled career as Pensionary of the States of Holland. Everybody knows the story, at least so far as the great merit of the Pensionary, and the fact of his execution is concerned, and therefore it would be out of place to tell it here again at length. Interesting

1 A.H. Bullen, A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. II, p. 434, in an Appendix written by R. Boyle.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 283 for our present purpose is the fact, that, immediately after the execution three different pamphlets in the English language were written and spread abroad in England: 1. Barnavelt's Apologie, or Holland's Mysteria, with marginal castigations by Robert Houlderus, Minister of the Word of God. 1618.1 2. Newes out of Holland - Concerning Barnavelt and his fellow-prisoners, their conspirary against their Native Country with the enemies thereof - The Oration and Propositions made in their behalf unto the General States of the United Provinces at the Hague by the Ambassadours of the French King, etc. 1619. 3. The Arraignment of John van Olden Barnevelt, late Advocate of Holland and West Friesland. Containing the articles alleged against him and the reasons of his execution 1619. Probably in the main by these pamphlets, the story of Oldenbarnevelt made an impression in England, with the result that within three months after the execution of Oldenbarnevelt a tragedy was written and played in London by the King's company acting at Blackfriars, under the title: ‘The tragedy of Sir John of Olden Barnavelt.’ This play was, so far as we know, never printed during the 17th century, and was later entirely forgotten, until, in the year 1851, the British Museum purchased the original manuscript, ‘a folio of thirty-one leaves, written in a small clear hand,’ from the Earl of Denbigh. At the British Museum Mr. A.H. Bullen found it, and published it in Vol. II of his collection of Old English Plays, IV Vols. London, 1883. The edition is printed only in one hundred and fifty copies ‘on Dutch Hand-made

1 A.H. Bullen, l.e., p. 205. If the year 1618, as Bullen gives it, is right, then of course this pamphlet cannot yet describe the execution, but only the great struggle that preceded it.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 284 paper,’ so that even now, after it has been published, the play would be pretty rare, were it not that the great Dutch historian, Robert Fruin, has reprinted it in the original English language, with an introduction in Dutch: Gravenhage. Martinus Nÿhoff, 1884. Both Bullen and Fruin, as well as other competent judges in England and in Holland, are enthusiastic in valuing this tragedy as a masterpiece of dramatic literature. ‘It is curious,’ says Bullen, ‘that it should have been left to the present editor to call attention to a piece of such extraordinary interest; for I have no hesitation in predicting that Barnavelt's Tragedy, for its splendid command of fiery dramatic rhetoric, will rank among the masterpieces of English dramatic literature.’1 Another English author and scholar in dramatic poetry, F.G. Fleay, calls it a ‘magnificent play,’ while Robert Boyle, not less competent in this field of literature, says: ‘This play, the most valuable Christmas present English scholars have for half a century received, appears indubitably to belong to the Massinger and Fletcher series. Even a cursory glance will convince the reader that it is one of the greatest treasures of our dramatic literature. That such a gem should lie in manuscript for over two hundred years, should be catalogued in our first library, should be accessible to the eye of the prying scholar, and yet never even be noticed till now, affords a disagreeable but convincing proof of the want of interest in our early literature displayed even by those whose studies in this field would seem to point them out for the work of rescuing these literary treasures from a fate as bad as that which befell those plays which perished at the hands of Warburton's accursed menial.’2 Swin-

1 A.H. Bullen. Introduction.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 285 burne calls it: ‘so noble a poem, this newly unearthed treasure.’ Fruin, the Dutch historian and editor of the play, after having made some critical remarks, says that the tragedy Palamedes, treating the same historical theme, written by Vondel, the prince of Dutch poets, may not be compared with it, and that it is not a shame for Vondel to be beaten by such a competitor.’1 Fruin was also the man who solved the question of the date at which the play was written. This question had been solved by Bullen only so far as to prove that it was written between May, 1619, the date of the execution of Oldenbarnevelt, and the year 1622, the year in which George Buc, who signed it in a marginal note with his initials, resigned as ‘master of the revels.’ But Fruin fixed the date of the play much more exactly from two unpublished letters written by Thomas Locke from London to the English ambassador, Sir Dudley Carleton, at the Hague. The first letter is dated August 14, 1619, and therein it is said: ‘The players here were bringing “of Barnavelt” upon the stage and had bestowed a great deal of money to prepare all things for the purpose, but at th' instant were prohibited by my Lo - of London.’ The second letter was dated August 27th, in which it is said: ‘Our players have found the means to goe through with the play of Barnevelt, and it had many spectators and received applause.’ Consequently the play must have been written between May, 1619, the date of Oldenbarne-

2 Ed. A.H. Bullen, p. 434. It is interesting that in this play the Netherlands are called ‘the United States,’ p. 306. 1 R. Fruin, Verspreide geschriften, Vol. IX, p. 122. On p. 125 Fruin gives six Dutch words used in the play by the English author, viz.: schellain (Dutch schelm), the bree (brui), lustique (lustig), kremis (kermis), doyt (duit), and vroa (vrouw). In the main the play is true to history in so far as it lays full stress on the point that Oldenbarnevelt tried to break the union of the state (p. 226, 286 and 291) at a time when the other party certainly might claim: ‘The union must be preserved.’ It is more true to history than Motley's book, Life and Death of Oldenbarnevelt. See Groen van Prinsterer, Maurice et Barnevelt, the best book on this question.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 286 velt's execution, and August 14, 1619, the time when the players were ready to bring it on the stage. But even that time of three months, in which the play must have been written, was shortened by the researches of Fruin. He found two places in the play where the dismissing of the son of Oldenbarnevelt as governor of the city of Bergen op Zoom is spoken about.1 This fact is mentioned by the Ambassador Carleton in a letter to London dated July 14th. The letter says that the dismission took place ‘last week,’ which is in accordance with the resolutions of the States General of July 5, 9, 11 and 17. Consequently the tragedy must have been written after July 14th, the first date at which the dismissal of Barnevelt's son could be known in England, and before August 14th, the date on which the players were ready to bring it on the stage, so that not more than one month was taken for the writing of the play - just approximately the time, says Fruin, which in those days was allowed for the writing of a play.2 Another question is, who was the author of this play? Both Bullen and Boyle come to the conclusion that Fletcher and Massinger together were the authors. Their arguments founded on long quotations are too extensive to be given here. But Boyle in one place gives this summary of the evidence, which may suffice: ‘But, it may be asked, what proof have we that it was a production of Massinger and Fletcher? As for the latter, there can be no doubt. His double endings are sufficient proof. As for the Massinger part, there is first the probability of his being Fletcher's partner, as the play belongs to a

1 Ed. Bullen, p. 249. Here the son of Oldenbarnevelt says: ‘My government of Berghen is disposed of.’ See also p. 277, where Oldenbarnevelt says: ‘Where's my son William? His government is gon too.’ 2 Fruin Verspreide Geschriften, IX, p. 113.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 287 period when we know they were working together; secondly, the metrical style could belong to nobody else; thirdly, according to his well-known manner, he has allusions to and repetitions of expressions in his other plays.’ Finally in connection with this tragedy of Oldenbarnevelt, I must mention with a few words another play written at about the same time, and for which the subject also was obtained from the Dutch. At the end of his introduction to the Tragedy of Oldenbarnevelt, the editor Bullen writes - ‘The following note, for which I am indebted to Mr. Fleay, will be read with interest: It is noticeable that a play called the Jeweller of Amsterdam or the Hague, by John Fletcher, Nathaniel Field and Phillip Massinger, was entered on the Stationer's Books, 8th April, 1654, but not printed. This play must have been written between 1617 and 1619, while Field was connected with the King's company, and undoubtedly referred to the murder of John van Wely, the Jeweller of Amsterdam, by John of Paris, the confidential groom of Prince Maurice, in 1619.’

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Chapter XXXIV John Milton. His Life and Paradise Lost. Milton and Grotius. Milton and Vondel. Milton and Junius. Milton and Salmasius. Milton and Alexander Morus. Bibliography. Hugo Grotius and John Selden. Selden and Ghaswinckel.

For the questions to be considered in this chapter a short outline of the most important dates in Milton's life may be useful. Milton's life is commonly divided for the convenience of the students into three periods: his education, followed by his life at his father's home at Horton, and his travel to France and Italy (1608-1639); his public life in the service of the great cause of the struggle against the Stuarts, before and during the Commonwealth (1640-1660); and his retirement after the great struggle and under the restoration of the Stuarts (1660-1674). From his earliest youth until 1632, the year in which he received his master's degree at Christ's College, Cambridge, Milton had a splendid education and was a very serious student, having very early a strong consciousness of the important task of his life. Although he expected to become a minister of the church, Milton, after he left the University, devoted himself rather to the writing of poems and to scholarship, and consequently he stayed with his father at Horton, not far from Windsor Castle, until in 1638

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 289 he started on his journey to Italy. On his way to Italy he stopped at Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Hugo Grotius, at that time in more than one respect the most famous scholar, poet, lawyer, and theologian in Europe. From that time on, new subjects and new ideals influenced his mind and his program of life, while in England the most critical period of a civil war began. Therefore, with Milton's return to England in 1639 commences the second period of his life. It is the period of the civil war, and of the Commonwealth. Feeling to the bottom of his heart the far reaching importance of the mortal struggle in which the whole nation was involved, and in which freedom of conscience was at stake, Milton sided with Cromwell and the other leaders of Democracy from start to finish. During that struggle, to which he gave all the assistance he could, and which pressed upon his mind with all its bewildering grandeur, and its overwhelming power of earnestness, his poetic feelings grasped for subjects adequate to, and in harmony with what was going on, subjects which he found in the sublime problems of ‘the ways of God with men,’ and in the tremendous ideas of the fall of the angels and of man, which make up the majestic pictures of Paradise Lost. No trace of this subject can be found in the first period of his life, although his poems written during that period, give us ample information of what were subjects in his mind. After his return from Italy in 1639, authentic proofs in his own handwriting exist to show, that these sublime questions had engrossed his mind, and that they never left him, until, in the years from 1658 until 1663, he composed the magnificent work which lies now before us in Paradise Lost. And as if the natural depth and seriousness of his life,

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 290 the religious strictness of his education and the terrible struggle in which his people became involved, were by themselves not enough to uplift his soul to the serene sublimity of this subject, he was after the year 1652 afflicted with total blindness, by which still more if possible his entire mind was directed to the unseen spiritual world. After the great conceptions of Paradise Lost had taken their final form and shape, and while Milton was engaged in dictating them, in 1660 occurred the Restoration, and from that time, begins the third period of Milton's life. From 1660, until his death in 1674, he lived in retirement, writing his Paradise Regained, as a triumphant consequence of his Paradise Lost, and many other poems and prose works, amongst which the Samson Agonistes, ‘a subject peculiarly appropriate to the last sad years of the old Independent,’ came the ‘nearest to the level of his great epic.’ After this brief outline, which may recall the circumstances under which Paradise Lost was written and its place in the great poet's life, we come now to the great question, what were the sources accessible to Milton for this grand epic, and to which of them was he most indebted? That Milton's work rested only on what he read in his bible, and consequently that he did not even know what had been written about the subject before him, and during his lifetime, as Dr. J.J. Moolhuizen puts the case, is certainly the most improbable possibility that ever could be supposed. A scholar like Milton, ‘a man of epic genius, great artist and originator that he is before anything else, is also inescapably predisposed to be a collector and conserver of the

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 291 perishing riches of the past.’1 No scholar in the world, of any account, would do such a thing, as Dr. Moolhuizen thinks Milton did. Indeed we may be sure, before anything else be said, that Milton had taken due notice of everything written about his great subject, which he could in any possible way obtain. We may be just as sure that every great idea, which he found in any work, and which he could make use of in his gigantic composition, really was used. It is derogatory to the high standard of Milton's scholarship, even to doubt about this. Three works there are, which in this connection, deserve to be taken into special consideration: 1st, The Adamus Exul by Hugo Grotius, published in 1600; 2nd, The Lucifer by Joost van den Vondel, published in 1653, and, 3rd, The ‘Paraphrasis’ of Caedmon, published by Franciscus Junius in 1655. That these three works were the most important sources, which were at Milton's disposal, is just as sure as that every one of these books was published by a man of Dutch nationality.

Milton and Hugo Grotius.

In the year 1638, on his way to Italy, Milton at Paris made the acquaintance of Hugo Grotius. This means that a young English poet of thirty years of age, as Milton was at that time, enjoyed the opportunity of getting into contact with a man twenty-five years his senior; a man famous throughout all Europe as a scholar, lawyer, poet, theologian and historian, some of whose works were in the library of every

1 Carey Herbert Conley, Milton's indebtedness to his contemporaries in ‘Paradise Lost.’ Typewritten master's thesis in the University of Chicago, 1910, p. 9. A copy of this eminent dissertation, which deserves to be printed, is in the library of the University of Chicago. It is a work of 233 pages (8 1/2 XII), divided as follows: Introduction, 1-13; Fletcher's Locustae and Appolyontis, 14-38; Grotius' Adamus Exul, 35-85; Caedmon's Genesis, 87-112; Vondel's Lucifer, 116-185; Vondel's Adam in Ballingschap, 186-204; Conclusion, 206-230; Bibliography, 232-233.

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University; whom, years before Princes like Louis XIII and Gustaphus Adolphus had admired and honored; whose work De jure belli ac pacis, alone, had established his everlasting fame, and whose book De veritate Religionis Christianae had been translated in many languages, even into the Arabic and the Chinese; a Dutch scholar who was at that time ambassador for Queen Christina of Sweden at the Court of France; besides that a man of a very gentle and amiable character. That Milton must have highly appreciated this meeting with Grotius, does not admit of doubt. It must have brought Milton into more close contact also with the works of Grotius. At least when we see that among the themes for projected poems in the manuscripts of Milton, which are now in the Library of Trinity College, and which date about 1640-1642, there are four which relate to the theme of Paradise Lost, and one called Christus Patiens, we cannot help thinking of Hugo Grotius, whose Adamus Exul and Christus Patiens, as two Tragoediae Sacrae, were published in one volume in 1603, in 1608 at Leyden and in 1610 and 1618 at Paris. Before Milton's personal acquaintance with Hugo Grotius, he might have read these tragedies of Grotius, and he might have seen the plays of Phineas Fletcher, published in 1627, while Milton was a student; he might have known Joshua Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas' Divine Weeks, but the fact is that Milton up to 1640 had written many poems, and had been pondering over many beautiful subjects, but had not written a single verse that reminds us of the sublime theme of these works. On the other hand, immediately after he met Hugo Grotius, the theme appears in his common-place book, and, as if to

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Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 293 remind us of Grotius, he inserts also the title Christus Patiens. For this reason it seems probable that, whatever else Milton may have read or known about the theme of Paradise Lost, he got from Hugo Grotius the deciding inspiration for the great theme, for the development of which the following years in Milton's life became so exceedingly favorable. In England the idea that Milton got his first inspiration for Paradise Lost from Grotius, has been held from a very early date, for in the Life of Milton in the English Plutarch, published in 1762, the author says on p. 124: ‘Mr. Lauder, in his Essay on Milton's Life and Imitation of the Moderns, has insinuated that Milton's first hint of Paradise Lost was taken from a tragedy of the celebrated Grotius, called Adamus Exul, and that Milton has not thought it beneath him to transplant some of that author's beauties into his noble work, as well as some other flowers culled from the gardens of inferior geniuses; but by an elegance of art, and force of nature peculiar to him, he has drawn the admiration of the world upon passages, which, in their original authors, stood neglected and undistinguished.’1 As for the comparison of passages in Grotius' Adamus Exul, and Milton's Paradise Lost, to find the indebtedness of Milton to Grotius as far as the contents of the poem goes, I refer to the dissertation of Conley because he follows the only method I can agree with, when he says: ‘We shall moreover discard a method often pursued in the study of this and other like problems - that of rather promiscuously ransacking one or more poems for single lines or passages that are similar to an equal number of lines or words in the poem which is being considered.

1 The work of Mr. Lauder was published at London in 1750.

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Many results, often of value only to the curious have been produced in this way, but we prefer to consider here only such likenesses as exhibit fundamental parallelisms of plot, matter and imagery in passages of some length.’1 Conley devotes not less than fifty pages to a comparison of Adamus Exul and Paradise Lost, and at the end, in a summary, he makes, among others, the conclusion that ‘we can safely say that the outlines of Adamus Exul and Paradise Lost are the same,’ and ‘that the relationship in most of the cases’ (as quoted in great number) ‘are fairly evident.’ ‘We have now come to the end of this long set of interesting correspondences between Paradise Lost and Adamus Exul, which, we find, has extended from the very beginning of each poem almost to the end.’2

Milton and Vondel.

Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679) is considered the greatest poet of the Netherlands, and his drama Lucifer, is, of his thirty-two plays, the masterpiece. His particular beauty, in which he can hardly be said to be excelled by any poet in the world, lies in the lyrical songs, which, after the manner of Greek tragedy, he introduces into his plays. Although until the year 1640 he belonged to the more humanistic circle of literary men, he was of a deeply religious character, and being strongly opposed to the Calvinistic party, he at last took refuge in the Roman Catholic Church in the year 1640. His tragedy, Gysbrecht van Amstel, having for its subject an episode of the early history of Amsterdam, is played every year on Christmas in the great theatre of that city. Lack of sufficient action, too many monologues

1 Conley, Dissertation, p. 2. 2 Conley, p. 84.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 295 and narratives, are the faults of Vondel's plays, and because of these faults they never attained to world-fame by being often brought on the stage, either in Holland or in foreign countries. Among his plays are, besides the Lucifer, the Adam in Ballingschap on the same theme as Grotius' Adamus Exul; and his Samson Agonistes. Vondel was a strong royalist, and wrote a drama Maria Stuart of Gemartelde Majesteit (Tortured Majesty). During the civil war he wrote satires in favor of Charles I, and against Cromwell. Milton probably never got personally acquainted with Vondel, but there were many ways for Milton to know about Vondel's writings. Vondel was a great friend of Hugo Grotius, whom Milton met at Paris, and was well acquainted with Franciscus Junius, who lived in England for many years, and above all, as Conley remarks: ‘Vondel's efforts as a royalist pamphleteer, both as regards Dutch and English politics, if nothing else, would have brought him and his play to Milton's notice.’1 The question of Milton's indebtedness to Vondel in his Samson Agonistes, and especially in his Paradise Lost, is a very interesting one, and a considerable number of monographs have been published on the subject, a list of which has been made up by Conley, and is given at the end of this chapter. Edmundson may have gone too far in a few respects in asserting Milton's indebtedness; on the other hand Dr. Moolhuizen undoubtedly goes to the other extreme by denying every relationship between Vondel and Milton. The last and the best monograph on the subject seems to me indeed the dissertation of Conley, both for his right method and his thorough researches.

1 Conley, p. 116.

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In a really scrutinizing comparison of all the parallel places in Paradise Lost and Lucifer, which fills not less than seventy pages of his dissertation, Conley comes to the following conclusions: ‘Indeed, though Lucifer certainly did not furnish the initial impulse for the composition of Paradise Lost, it probably exerted the dominant influence upon Milton's mind while he was giving his poem its final form.’ And: ‘we have been enabled, we think, to show that in a large number of cases Milton greatly elaborated suggestions which he obtained from Lucifer, and in still others he probably expressed his disagreement with Vondel.’1 As for Vondel's Adam in Ballingschap (Adam in exile), and its influence on Milton, Conley says: ‘The certainty of Vondel's intimate knowledge of Adamus Exul (of Grotius) is confirmed by the discovery that Vondel had previously made a Dutch translation of Adamus Exul. These facts throw light upon our problem in this way: Milton, as we have discovered, had with Adamus Exul as a basis, in his early writing formed the plan of the whole epic, and since Vondel had formed his plan upon the same, when Adam in Ballingschap came into his hands, he found Vondel's plot without change, enough like his own to furnish excellent material for elaboration.’2

Milton and Junius.

Franciscus Junius3 was the man who furnished Milton with that source for his Paradise Lost, which is called the Paraphrase of Genesis by Caedmon. Junius studied this ‘Paraphrase,’ and after having learned its old Anglo-Saxon language, published it in 1655 at Amsterdam, just in time for Milton to use it as one of his sources.

1 Conley, p. 185 and 186. 2 Conley, p. 188. 3 See about Junius our first chapter.

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‘At first,’ says Conley, ‘it seems rather hard to connect Milton with this poem, for very probably he knew no Anglo-Saxon, at least, very little, but Junius was in England from 1620 to 1651, employed as the librarian of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, an estate famous for its antiquities, and situated fifty-five miles southwest of London. During his life at Arundel, Junius made several trips to Oxford, and doubtless passed through London many times. And it is believed that through conversations with Junius, and by examining his manuscript for the sake of the illuminations, Milton became thoroughly acquainted with the contents of the poem.’ It would be hard to find anyone except Junius who could have given such full information about the contents of the Caedmon Paraphrase, at that period, as Milton needed to be useful for his purpose. It was especially for the ‘visual images’ as ‘the imagery of this poem surpasses anything tradition may have possessed, and approaches Milton's brilliant conceptions.’1

Bibliography on the ‘Milton and Vondel’ Question.

Conley, Cary Herbert. Milton's indebtedness to his contemporaries in ‘Paradise Lost.’ A master's thesis for the University of Chicago, 1910. Only in typewritten copies in the Harper Library. As I think this is the best treatise on the subject, I give here as further bibliography, the books and articles enumerated by Conley. BARHAM, F. - The Adamus Exul of Grotius; Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, London, 1839. GURTEEN, S.H. - The Epic of the Fall of Man; G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1896.

1 Conley, p. 112.

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KUIPER, DR. E.T. - Joost van den Vondel, Adam in Ballingschap; W.J. Thieme en Cie, Zutphen, 1906. MOODY, W.V. - The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton; Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York, 1899. CARUS, P. - History of the Devil; Open Court Publishing Company, Chicago and London, 1906. CONWAY, M.D. - Demonology and Devil Lore; 2 Volumes, New York, 1879. DOUGLAS, N. - Another Source for Paradise Lost; Atlantic Monthly, November, 1908. DUFLOU, G.D. - Milton's Indebtedness to Vondel; Academy 47-379. DUNSTER, C. - Considerations on Milton's early reading and the prima stanina of his ‘Pardise Lost’ etc., in a letter to William Falconer, etc.; J. Nichols, London, 1800. EDMUNDSON, G. - Milton and Vondel; a curiosity of Literature; Truebner and Company, London, 1865. GOSSE, E., and EDMUNDSON, G. - Milton and Vondel; Academy 28: 265, 293, 342. LAUDER, W. - An Essay on Milton's Imitation of the Moderns in his Paradise Lost; J. Payne and J. Bouquet, London, 1750. MACILRAITH, J.R. - Milton and Vondel; Academy 28-308. MOOLHUIZEN, J.J. - Vondel's Lucifer en Milton's Verloren Paradÿs; Dissertation, Gravenhage, 1895. MUELLER, A. - Milton's Abhaengigkeit von Vondel; Dissertation, Berlin, 1891. WESTWOOD, J.C. - Milton and Caedmon; Academy 35-10. WOODHULL, M. - The Epic of Paradise Lost; G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1907. Milton and Vondel; Nation 42-264. Milton and Vondel; Atheneum '85, 2-599.

Milton and Salmasius.

At a time when Cromwell with his Ironsides was fighting the battle of Marston-Moor, and Milton was defending the cause of English Democracy with his arguments, there was at the University of Leyden a

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 299 professor by the name of Claude Salmasius, or Saumaise as he was called in France, from where he came. Born in 1588 at Semur-en-Auxois, in Burgundy, Salmasius had a very brilliant career in almost every department of learning, and scholarship. He studied law for three years under the famous Godefroy at Heidelberg, but afterwards preferred the study of languages and literature. His fame as a scholar of the very first rank ran through all Europe. The Universities of Padua and Bologna offered him a professorship, and England tried to win him, until in 1623 he accepted the call of Leyden in order to take the place of Scaliger. After that Louis XIII of France made him Counsel of State; Henry of Bourbon, Governor of Burgundy, made all efforts to recall him to France; the queen Christina of Sweden invited him to her court; the Cardinal de Richelieu offered him a great amount of money in case he would leave Holland; Prince Maurits asked him to write a book on Roman military training, and Prince Frederick Henry once, when Salmasius had to make a journey to France, ordered a ship to be put at his disposal, and a part of the Dutch fleet to accompany him to one of the seaports of France. Never before was a scholar given so much honor. To all this Salmasius responded by writing an almost incredible number of books on all kinds of subjects, as well as pamphlets on the prominent questions of the day. Being a royalist, he wrote, shortly after the execution of Charles I, a booklet entitled ‘Defensio Regia pro Carolo I,’ dedicated to the king's oldest son Charles, whom he called the heir and legitimate successor of his father as King of England. This book appeared in October or November, 1649. On January 8, 1650, it was ordered by the

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English Council of State ‘that Mr. Milton do prepare something in answer to the book of Salmasius, and when he has done it bring it to the Council.’ Milton undertook this task and wrote his book ‘Pro-Populo Anglicano Defensio.’ Salmasius at the height of his European fame, living near to the court of Prince William II, who had married Princess Mary, the daughter of the beheaded king, and the sister of the Princes Charles and James, who had found refuge at The Hague, wrote in a very dignified, quiet, somewhat pedantic style, hardly imagining that anybody in the world could surpass him. But Milton was in quite another disposition. His indignation rose to heaven. ‘His scorn of the presumptuous intermeddler, who had dared to libel the people of England, is ten thousand times more real than Salmasius' official indignation at the execution of Charles. His contempt for Salmasius' pedantry is quite genuine; and he revels in ecstacies of savage glee, when taunting the apologist of tyranny with his own notorious subjection to a tyrannical wife. But the reveler in Milton is too far ahead of the reasoner.’1 ‘There is no comparison between the invective of Milton and of Salmasius; not so much from Milton's superiority as a controversialist, though this is very evident, as because he writes under the inspiration of a true passion.’ Of course both Salmasius and Milton were able to adduce strong arguments in favor of the side which they were defending, and the question which wrote best depends largely upon what point of view the critic adopts. Those who look at the controversy from a purely literary point of view, will certainly give the palm of victory to Milton.

1 Richard Garnett, Life of John Milton, p. 112.

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Milton and Alexander Morus.

Among the pamphlets that were published in answer to Milton's Defense of the English people, there was one that was deemed worthy of an answer. It was entitled ‘Clamor regii sanguinis ad coelum adversus paricidas Anglicanos,’ and was published at The Hague in 1652, without mentioning the author. Milton was informed that Alexander Morus, a professor in the Athenaeum at Amsterdam, was the author, and wrote his Defensio secunda against Morus, who was an accomplice, only in so far as he seems to have brought the pamphlet to the printer, and may be supposed to have agreed with it perfectly. Milton's Defensio secunda, published in 1654, is especially interesting, because in answering the personal attacks made upon him, he gave a fairly complete account of his own youth. At the same time Milton had obtained such intimate information about the life and the faults of Morus, and with this knowledge attacked him so fiercely, that the curators of the Athenaeum took official notice of it, and he became involved in a good deal of trouble, from which he tried to extricate himself in a pamphlet entitled, ‘Alexandri Mori fides publica.’ The real author, however, was not Morus, but Peter Du Moulin (son of the well-known Frenchman of the same name) ex-rector of Wheldrake in Yorkshire. The only merit in these controversies, whether with Salmasius or with Morus, is that they gave sufficient offense to Milton to make him produce his double defense of the English Democracy.

Hugo Grotius and John Selden.

In this connection the controversy between Hugo Grotius and John Selden may be mentioned in a few words, as occurring at the same time between an Eng-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 302 lish and a Dutch scholar. It is the famous controversy between the Mare Liberum of Hugo Grotius and the Mare Clausum of John Selden. John Selden (1584-1654) was one of the greatest scholars, one of the best defenders of the people's liberties, one of the most able members of Parliament, that ever lived in England. Some of the authors who write about him, will tell us that he was not in favor of Democracy, but they do not understand that a man may be of the highest aristocratic spirit, and be living exclusively with men of high learning, and high standing, and yet be one of the best defenders of the rights of the people. But in the controversy with Grotius, Selden made the great mistake of his life. He declared in his Mare Clausum, that ‘the sea as much as the land is the subject of private property,’ and more especially that England owned that property to a considerable extent, while Grotius defended the freedom of the open sea. With Grotius the Mare Liberum was originally only a chapter in his great work De jure Praedae Commentarius, which formed the fundamental conception of his later work, De jure belli ac pacis, which is considered now all over the world as the foundation of international law, and which gave to the name of Hugo Grotius an imperishable fame.1 Selden's book was only a single study in that field, written at the command of James I and Charles I; King Charles was very much pleased with it, and although this is no great compliment for Selden, it was no reason for another Dutch juris consult of fame, Graswinckiel, to accuse Selden of writing the book to get out of prison. Selden gave a due answer to Graswinckel in his Vindiciae, a short time before he died, in 1654.

1 Cf. R. Fruin, Verspreide Geschriften, III, 367-445.

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Chapter XXXV The Time of the Anglo-Dutch Wars. John Dryden, Andrew Marvell and Edmund Waller

The seventeenth century was the most glorious time for the Dutch Republic. The Dutch flag was on all seas, Dutch colonies were found in every corner of the globe; the riches accumulated in the cities of Holland was for those times beyond all imagination; art and literature flourished under the protection of wealthy business men, and names like those of Rembrandt and Van Dyck, Vondel and Cats were being added to the list of world-famous men; admirals like Tromp and DeRuyter maintained the respect which was due to the sturdy Republic; generals, like the Princes of Orange, made their armies a training-school for the best soldiers in Europe. The Northern Provinces, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with their wealthy cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam, were worthy successors of the cities of the Southern Netherlands in the sixteenth and fifteenth centuries and even excelled them by far. In a city like Brughes, it happened in the year 1301, that the queen of France, sitting at a dinner party, made the remark, ‘I thought that I alone was the queen here, but I see that all the ladies here are queens.’ But in Amsterdam it happened that a foreign prince while taking dinner with the magistrates, asked one of his neighbors at the table if there were any nobles there,

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 304 and received as an answer, ‘We are all princes here.’ Holland ‘had reached the height of power, prosperity and glory. The Batavian territory, conquered from the waves, and defended against them by human art, was in extent little superior to the principality of Wales. But all that narrow space was a busy and populous hive, in which new wealth was every day created, and in which vast masses of old wealth were hoarded. The aspect of Holland, the rich cultivation, the innumerable canals, the ever whirling mills, the endless fleets of barges, the numerous clusters of great towns, the ports bristling with thousands of masts, the large and stately mansions, the trim villas, the richly furnished apartments, the picture galleries, the summer-houses, the tulip-beds, produced on English travelers in that age an effect similar to the effect, which the first sight of England now produces on a Norwegian or a Canadian.’1 That foreigners who travelled in Holland during the seventeenth century were profoundly impressed by its tremendous wealth and power is evident from contemporary English writers such as Evelyn in his Diary (published London, 1818), and William Temple, and from an anonymous pamphlet, published in 1664, entitled, ‘The Dutch Drawn to the Life,’2 and another work, A Late Voyage to Holland, which was published in 1691.3 But this glorious position of Holland, leading the nations of Europe in civilization, in trade, in industry, in art, and last, but not least, in politics, was not destined to endure. England's trade and power were now growing very fast, and because Cromwell made up his mind either to unite the Dutch Republic with the English Commonwealth, or to conquer the Dutch

1 Macaulay, History of England, Vol. I, p. 188. 2 A copy of this pamphlet is in the University Library at Leyden. 3 Harleian miscellany, Vol. II.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 305 on the sea, and because the Dutch could not accept the former alternative, there was left for Holland only one choice, viz., a struggle against England for the empire of the waves. Cromwell's navigation acts gave the first, but at the same time, the fatal stroke to Holland's supremacy on the sea.1 Since that time England grew in power very fast and Holland declined. Only once more, and that in confederation with England, did Holland lead the politics of the world. It was under William the Third, Prince of Orange, stadholder of Holland and King of England, when Louis XIV of France threatened all Protestantism with complete extirpation, and this great Prince, a statesman and general of such ability that the world's history knows only a few like him, at the head of Holland and England, frustrated all the plans of the French King, delivered England from the tyranny of the Stuarts, and dominated all the factions that weakened the United Netherlands. The Dutch-English wars were begun for no other reason ‘but that the Hollanders exceeded us in commerce and industries, and in all things but envy’ as Evelyn wrote on June 2, 1672. This constant envy, and the wars brought about a bad feeling between the two nations, which is easily perceived, and is apparent in the literature of both nations during the period. Patriotism received an evil development and was exaggerated to the limit, and in such cases some literary men are always found who are eager to please public opinion. There was, indeed, an opportunity for a man like

1 Like John Dryden, writing poems for his daily bread, said in his stanzas on Oliver Cromwell: ‘He (viz. Cromwell) made us freemen of the continent Whom nature did like captives treat before; To nobler preys the English lion sent, And taught him first in Belgian walks to roar.’

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John Dryden (1631-1700), a man ‘who made writing a trade.’ ‘He was quick to feel what the public wanted and he showed no scruples in adapting his wares to the popular demand.’1 Dryden's ability was great, indeed, and from the death of Milton in 1674, till his own in 1700, he reigned undisputed; and sat on his throne in Will's Coffeehouse, as ‘glorious John,’ surrounded by several of the minor poets, and writers of his time; but at the same time the moral danger of the influence of his character, or rather of his lack of character, has been felt ever since, and is warned against by every author to the present day. In the days of Cromwell, he praised the Lord Protector; after the restoration, he celebrated the return of the Stuarts, and when the Catholic James II ascended the throne, Dryden wrote his Hind and Panther, glorifying the Church of Rome. No wonder that this man, as he felt that the envy and competition between the English and the Dutch nations was growing, inspired himself with a hatred against the Dutch, that knew no limit. His tragedy, Amboyna, gives the proof. The full title is: Amboyna, or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants, a Tragedy, 1672. His subject is the story of some Englishmen on the Dutch isle of Amboyna in East India, who were accused of conspiring to overpower the Dutch government of the isle, were arrested, convicted and executed. The story as related in Dutch and English books seems to be different and the truth is difficult to find out; but there is no difference of opinion as to this tragedy of Dryden. According to the authors of the best edition of Dryden's works, Sir and George Saintsbury, ‘the play is beneath criticism’ and, says Scott, ‘I can hardly hesitate to

1 Henry Pancoast and P. van Dyke Shelly, English Literature, p. 227.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 307 term it the worst production Dryden ever wrote,’ and Saintsbury adds: ‘The play is the one production of Dryden which is utterly worthless except as a curiosity.’1 Dryden wrote it ‘with the avowed intention of exasperating the nation against the Dutch.’2 at a time when the Lord Chancellor of England, Shaftesbury, stated that ‘the States of Holland were England's eternal enemies, both by interest and by inclination.’3 The play was acted and printed in 1673. Both the language spoken by the Lord Chancellor, and the play of Dryden, show with what apprehension at that time a war with Holland was regarded. Such language is not inspired by strength, but by fear and despair. It shows how strong Holland still was at that time, and the war, that followed these utterances, lasted from 1672 until 1674, when Holland had to fight at the same time against England, France, Munster and Cologne. And the result for England was doubtful. From 1672, to February, 1674, not less than twenty-seven hundred and three English ships were taken by the Dutch, and after two years' experience England was ready to make peace. The time for the annihilation of Holland as one of the great powers on sea had not yet come. Besides his Amboyna, Dryden in 1665 wrote a poem on the victory of the Duke of York over the Dutch, June 3, 1665, during the war of 1665-1667, with Holland. Much better than his Amboyna is Dryden's poem entitled, Annus Mirabilis, the year of Wonders, 1666. This is generally considered as one of Dryden's best works. The versification is brilliant, indeed, and from an enthusiastic English patriotic point of view, one can understand that even the con-

1 The works of John Dryden, Vol. V, p. 3. 2 Idem., p. 2. 3 Idem., p. 2.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 308 tents are wonderful, when the poet sings the praise of the English in the Anglo-Dutch war of that time. When describing the four days' battle of June, 1666, his enthusiasm nearly makes a glorious victory out of a decided defeat, from which the remnant of the English fleet was saved only by a heavy fog. And as for the inspiration of the poet, it was the same as the reason why England declared war, viz., a jealousy of the commerce, and a greedy desire to grasp the riches of the Dutch commercial vessels. His enthusiastic praise of simple brute force, without any higher ideal of righteousness shows this. He begins with these stanzas:

In thriving arts long time had Holland grown, Crouching at home and cruel when abroad; Scarce leaving us the means to take our own; Our king they courted and our merchants awed.

Trade, which like blood should circularly flow, Stopped in their channels, found its freedom lost; Thither the wealth of all the world did go, And seemed but shipwrecked on so base a coast.

For them alone the heavens had kindly heat In eastern quarries ripening precious dew; For them the Idumaean balm did sweat, And in hot Ceylon spicy forest grew.

The sun but seemed the labourer of their year; Each waning moon supplied her watery store, To swell those tides, which from the Line did bear Their brim-full vessels to the Belgian shore.

Thus mighty in her ships, stood Carthage long, And swept the richess of the world from far; Yet stooped to Rome, less wealthy, but more strong; And this may proof our second Punic war.

What peace can be, where both to one pretend? (But they more diligent, and we more strong) Or if a peace, it soon must have an end; For they would grow too powerful, were it long.

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Such language as this reminds one of the fallen angels in Paradise Lost or in Vondel's Lucifer, telling each other about the happiness and luxury of Adam and Eve in Paradise, at a time when they, overwhelmed by jealousy, were stirring each other up to a revolt against Heaven. Dryden used sometimes to visit Milton, but Milton ‘thought him no poet but a good rhimest,’1 and Milton knew what poetry was. Another English poet, inspired by English patriotism against the Dutch, was Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), an intimate friend of Milton, an adherent of Cromwell, and for sometime member of Parliament for Hull. Marvell was not a vile hireling of every dominant party like Dryden, for after the restoration of the Stuarts, the government was once advised ‘to crush the pestilent wit, the servant of Cromwell and the friend of Milton.’ He visited Holland more than once and in 1653 he wrote a satire upon Holland entitled: The character of Holland. It is a satire of 192 lines, and contains several really humorous parts. The small size of the country, its low level, which is in part below that of the sea, the work of draining, the herring-fishery, and many things in Holland, seen with the superficial view of an English member of Parliament, furnish him abundant material for his wit. He begins by looking at Holland from his English patriotic point of view, and says:

‘Holland, that scarce deserves the name of land, As but the off-scouring of the British sand.’ The city of Amsterdam he describes as follows: Sure when religion did itself embark And from the east would westward steer its ark,

1 English Plutarch, Life of Milton, p. 142.

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It struck, and splitting on this unknown ground Each one thence pillaged the first piece he found; Hence Amsterdam, Turk - Christian - Pagan - Jew; Staple of sects and mint of schism grew; The bank of conscience, where not one so strange Opinion but finds credit, and exchange.

The old custom which Dutch women in the villages had of taking with them, when going to church in wintertime, a footstool heated by glowing pieces of peat or ‘turf’ he described as follows:

See but the mermaids with their tails of fish Reeking at church over the chafing-dish! A vestal turf, enshrined in earthern ware, Fumes through the loopholes of a wooden square; Each to the temple with these altars bend.

He shows himself even acquainted with the works of Hugo Grotius, and brings his book entitled Mare Liberum or ‘the free sea’ into his satire in this way:

Yet still his claim the injured ocean laid And oft at leap-frog o'er their steeples played, As if on purpose it on land had come To show them what's their mare liberum.

Yet after all he cannot deny that Holland in the year 1653 amounted to something, for he called it ‘the Hydra of the seven provinces.’ But he is not afraid, for there is England, the young Hercules that will beat the Dutch.

And now the Hydra of seven provinces Is strangled by our infant Hercules.

England is further compared with Rome, and Holland is the Carthago delenda:

Or, what is left, their Carthago overcome Would render fain unto our better Rome.

Another much longer poem, containing 900 lines,

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 311 is a satire directed against Holland and is entitled: The last instructions to a painter about the Dutch Wars, 1667. From the picture which the painter is supposed to make of our lady State, it is apparent that the Dutch war of 1665-1667 has made a painfully sore impression on our poet. The Dutch admiral, De Ruyter, had just taken as his trophy the Royal Charles, the English flagship, while the English Parliament and Lords, horror-stricken, listened to the music of the Dutch guns on the Thames. Now our poet is in sack-cloth and ashes! Just listen how he complains over that day of Chattam; the sublime style of the book Job is hardly good enough:

Black day, accursed! on thee let no man hail Out of the port, or dare to hoist a sail, Or row a boat in thy unlucky hour! Thee, the year's monster, let thy dam devour And constant Time, to keep his course yet right, Fill up thy space with a redoubled night.

His heart really breaks, when he thinks of that flagship, the Royal Charles:

That sacred keel that had, as he, restored Its exiled sovereign on its happy board That pleasure boat of war, in whose dear side Secure, so oft he had this foe defied Now a cheap spoil, and the mean victor's slave Taught the Dutch colours from its top to wave; Of former glories the reproachful thought, With present shame compared, his mind distraught.

They would rather have seen it burnt,- I think he is right! - than to see it taken as a trophy to Holland:

But most they for their darling Charles complain And were it burned, yet less would be their pain, To see that fatal pledge of sea-command,

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Now in the ravisher De Ruyter's hand, The Thames roared, swooning Medway turned her tide, And were they mortal, both for grief had died.

But enough to see the influence of Holland on Andrew Marvell. Holland made the deepest and the most different impressions on him; it made him laugh, so that his sides were sore, and on the other hand it made him cry like a baby, so that the tears rolled down his cheeks; him, Andrew Marvell, Englishman, M.P. Another poet, who deserves to be mentioned here, is Edmund Waller (1606-1678), whose lovely poems cannot but make a charming impression on the reader, whose conduct in life was controlled by personal friendship, and by noble principles, not always without conflict between the two leading elements; to whom we can forgive his personal friendship both for Stuart Kings and for Cromwell, because he ever tried to stand for liberty and the rights of property, for freedom and toleration. ‘No poetical reputation,’ says Drury,1 ‘has suffered such vicissitudes as that of Edmund Waller; described in the inscription upon his tomb as “inter poetas sui temporis facile princeps,” it was still possible, in 1766, to introduce him to the readers of the Biographia Brittannica as “The most celebrated Lyric poet that ever England produced,” and when, in 1772, Percival Stockdale wrote his Life in which he declared that “his works gave a new era to English poetry,” his performance was considered of such merit, that he was on the point of receiving that commission to write “The lives of the Poets,” which was afterwards entrusted to Johnson.’ His position as member of Parliament during many years, and from his early youth, his wealth,

1 The Poems of Edmund Waller, edited by G. Thorn, Vol. I, Introd. p. 69.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 313 and that of his wife, which gave him the name of being probably the richest poet in English literature, have added lustre to his refined spirit, and to the charming elegance of his poetry. Waller wrote several poems inspired by Dutch subjects, the first of which was that to Anton Van Dyck, a Dutch painter, who lived in England during ten years (1630-1640), and whom everybody knows from his lovely portraits of the children of Charles I. The poem is apparently written by Waller after having admired a lady's portrait painted by Van Dyck, and reads as follows:

TO VAN DYCK

Rare Artisan whose pencil moves Not our delights alone, but loves! From thy shop of beauty we Slaves return, that entered free. The heedless lover does not know Whose eyes they are that wound him so; But, confounded with thy art, Inquires her name that has his heart. Another, who did long refrain, Feels his old wound bleed again With dear remembrance of that face, Where now he reads new hopes of grace: Nor scorn nor cruelty does find, But gladly suffers a false wind To blow the ashes of despair From the reviving brand of care. Fool! that forgets her stubborn look This softness from thy finger took. Strange! that thy hand should not inspire The beauty only, but the fire; Not the form alone, and grace, But act and power of the face. Mayst thou yet thyself as well, As all the world besides, excel! So you the unfeigned truth rehearse

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(That I may make it live in verse) Why thou couldst not at one assay That face to aftertimes convey, Which this admires. Was it thy wit To make her oft before thee sit? Confess, and we'll forgive thee this; For who would not repeat that bliss? And frequent sight of such a dame Buy with the hazard of his fame? Yet who can tax thy blameless skill, Though thy good hand had failed still, When nature's self so often errs? She for this many thousand years Seems to have practiced with much care, To frame the race of women fair; Yet never could a perfect birth Produce before to grace the earth, Which waxed old ere it could see Her that amazed thy art and thee. But now 'tis done, O let me know Where those immortal colors grow, That could this deathless piece compose! In lilies? or the fading rose? No; for this theft thou hast climbed higher Than did Prometheus for his fire.

Another poem in which he mentions Holland is: A panegyric to my Lord Protector, Of the present greatness, and joint interest of his Highness, and this nation. Here speaks the English patriot at the time in which the great struggle between Holland and England for the supremacy of the sea began. Addressing the Lord Protector the poet says:

Holland, to gain your friendship, is content To be our outguard on the continent; She from her fellow-provinces would go, Rather than hazard to have you her foe.

Several years later, after the restoration, in the year 1665, Waller wrote a poem entitled: Instruction

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 315 to a painter. For the drawing of the posture and the progress of his Majesty's forces at sea, under the command of his Highness-Royal; together with the battle and victory obtained over the Dutch, June 3, 1665. In this poem he describes the battle in which the Dutch admiral Wassenear-Obdam, with his flagship, was blown up, after which the Dutch fleet retired to the coast of Holland. He calls the Hollanders:

Those greedy mariners, out of whose way Diffusive Nature could no region lay, At home, preserved from rocks and tempests, lie, Compelled, like others, in their beds to die. Their single towns, the Iberian armies pressed; We all their provinces at once invest; And, in one month, ruin their traffic more Than that long war could in an age before.

Yet, the poet cannot deny that the Dutch still had some soldiers and some ships:

Meanwhile, like bees, when stormy winter's gone, The Dutch (as if the sea were all their own) Desert their ports, and, falling in their way, Our merchants are become their prey. Thus flourish they, before the approaching fight; As dying tapers give a blazing light. To check their pride, our fleet, half-victualled goes; Enough to serve us till we reach our foes; Who now appear so numerous and bold, The action worthy of our arms we hold. A greater force than that which here we find, Ne'er pressed the ocean, nor employed the wind.

The death of Van Wassenear-Obdam is described as follows:

Against him first Obdam his squadron leads Proud of his late success against the Swedes; Made by that action, and his high command,

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Worthy to perish by a prince's hand. The tall Batavian in a vast ship rides, Bearing an army in her hollow sides; Yet, not inclined the English ship to board, More on her guns relies, than on his sword; From whence a fatal volley we received; It missed the Duke, but his great heart is grieved; Three worthy persons from his side it tore, And dyed his garment with their scattered gore. Happy! to whom this glorious death arrives, More to be valued than a thousand lives! On such a theatre as this to die, For such a cause, and such a witness by! Who would not thus a sacrifice be made, To have his blood on such an altar laid? The rest about him struck with horror stood To see their leader covered o'er with blood. So trembled Jacob, when he thought the stains Of his son's coat had issued from his veins. He feels no wound but in his troubled thought, Before, for honor, now, revenge he sought; His friends in pieces torn, (the bitter news Not brought by Fame) with his own eyes he views. His mind at once reflecting on their youth, Their worth, their love, their valour, and their truth, The joys of court, their mothers, and their wifes, To follow him, abandoned, - and their lives! He storms and shoots, but fiying bullets now, To execute his rage, appear too slow; They miss, or sweep but common souls away; For such a loss Obdam his life must pay. Encouraging his men, he gives the word, With fierce intent that hated ship to board, And make the guilty Dutch, with his own arm, Wait on his friends, while yet their blood is warm. His winged vessel like an shows, When through the clouds to truss a swan she goes; The Belgian ship unmoved, like some huge rock Inhabiting the sea, expects the shock. From both the fleets men's eyes are bent this way, Neglecting all the business of the day, Bullets their flight, and guns their noise suspend;

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The silent ocean does the event attend, Which leader shall the doubtful victory bless, And give an earnest of the war's success; When Heaven itself, for England to declare Turns ship, and men, and tackle, into air.

Shortly before the marriage of Prince William of Orange, the future king of England, with Mary, the daughter of the Duke of York, who later became King James II, Waller wrote two poems, one Of the Lady Mary, and another To the Prince of Orange in 1677. Both are gems of poetry, and interesting enough to be given here in full.

OF THE LADY MARY

As once the lion honey gave Out of the strong such sweetness came; A royal hero, no less brave, Produced this sweet, this lovely dame.

To her the prince, that did oppose Such mighty armies in the field, And Holland from prevailing foes Could so well free, himself does yield.

No Belgia's fleet (his high command) Which triumphs where the sun does rise, Nor all the force he leads by land, Could guard him from her conquering eyes.

Orange, with youth, experience has; In action young, in council old; Orange is, what Augustus was, Brave, wary, provident, and bold.

On that fair tree which bears his name, Blossoms and fruit at once are found; In him we all admire the same, His flowery youth with wisdom crowned!

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Empire and freedom reconciled In Holland are by great Nassau; Like those he sprung from, just and mild, To willing people he gives law.

Thrice happy pair! so near allied In royal blood, and virtue too! Now Love has you together tied, May none this triple knot undo!

The church shall be the happy place Where streams, which from the same source run, Though divers lands awhile they grace, Unite again, and are made one.

A thousand thanks the nation owes To him that does protect us all; For while he thus his niece bestows, About our isle he builds a wall;

A wall! like that which Athens had, By the oracle's advice, of wood; Had theirs been such as Charles has made, That mighty state till now had stood.

TO THE PRINCE OF ORANGE IN 1677

Welcome, great Prince, unto this land, Skilled in the arts of war and peace, Your birth does call you to command, Your nature does incline to peace.

When Holland, by her foes oppressed No longer could sustain their weight; To a native prince they thought it best To recommend their dying state.

Your very name did France expel; Those conquered towns which lately cost So little blood, unto you fell With the same ease they once were lost

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'Twas not your force did them defeat; They neither felt your sword nor fire; But seemed willing to retreat, And to your greatness did conspire.

Nor have you since ungrateful been, When at Seneff you did expose, And at Mount Cassel, your own men Whereby you might secure your foes.

Let Maestricht's siege enlarge your name, And your retreat at Charleroy; Warriors by flying may gain fame And Parthian-like their foes destroy.

Thus Fabius gained repute of old, When Roman glory gasping lay; In council slow, in action cold, His country saved, running away.

What better method could you take? When you by beauty's charm must move. And must at once a progress make, I' th' stratagems of war and love.

He that a princess' heart would gain, Must learn submissively to yield; The stubborn ne'er their ends obtain; The vanquished masters are o' the field.

Go on, brave Prince, with like success, Still to increase your hoped renown, Till to your conduct and adress, Not to your birth, you owe a crown.

Proud Alva with the power of Spain Could not the noble Dutch enslave; And wiser Parma strove in vain For to reduce a race so brave.

They now those very armies pay, By which they were forced to yield to you;

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Their ancient birthright they betray, By their own votes you them subdue.

Who can then liberty maintain When by such arts it is withstood? Freedom to princes is a chain To all that spring from royal blood.

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Chapter XXXVI Holland's Influence During the Time of William III, King of England and Stadholder of Holland. Daniel de Foe, Matthew Prior, Burnet and Locke.

The time of the glorious English revolution in 1688, was different from that of the Anglo-Dutch wars, during Cromwell's Republic, and after the restoration of the Stuarts. Enmity and hatred between Holland and England gave place to a confederation between the two nations against one foe, Louis XIV of France, who threatened all Protestantism in England as well as in Holland, with extirpation. Protestantism in its last and great struggle for freedom and existence, found in Prince William III a leader, both in politics and on the battlefield, able enough to match the French intrigues as well as the French armies. Married to the noble Mary, daughter of James II, a princess, whose lovely character and great devotion to her husband, and to the cause of Protestantism enabled her to give him the best assistance that anybody could imagine, William was called to a great task, which he notwithstanding all difficulties, in Holland as well as in England, performed in the most splendid way. The feelings in England towards Holland were now better than during the period of the Anglo-Dutch wars, yet, there remained many malcontents, some of whom were the zealous adherents of Catholicism,

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 322 and of the Stuarts, while others exaggerated English patriotism against the Dutch, whom they tried to discredit in the eyes of the English people by calling them ‘foreigners.’ As late as the year 1701 a pamphlet entitled ‘The Foreigners,’ was written by one Mr. Tutchin, in which, says De Foe, ‘the author fell personally upon the king himself, and then upon the Dutch nation. And after having reproached his Majesty with crimes, that his worst enemies could not think of without horror, he sums up all in the odious name of Foreigner’ ‘This,’ says De Foe, ‘filled me with a kind of rage against the book, and gave birth to a trifle, which I never could hope should have met with so general an acceptance as it did.’ This ‘trifle,’ was the famous satire entitled ‘The Trueborn Englishman,’ by Daniel De Foe, 1701, a poem of more than six hundred lines, in which the author of Robinson Crusoe displayed such splendid polemical ability that this poem has maintained itself till the present day as one of the classics of English literature. ‘Possibly,’ says the author in the Preface, ‘somebody may take me for a Dutchman, in which they are mistaken, but I am one that would be glad to see Englishmen behave themselves better to strangers, and to governors also, that one might not be reproached in foreign countries for belonging to a nation that wants manners. I assure you, gentlemen, strangers use us better abroad, and we can give no reason but our ill nature for the contrary here. Methinks an Englishman, who is so proud of being called a good fellow, should be civil. And it cannot be denied but we are, in many cases and particularly to strangers, the most churlish people alive. As to vices, who can dispute our intemperance, while an honest drunken fellow is a character in a man's praise! All our reformations

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 323 are banters, and will be so till our magistrates and gentry reform themselves, by way of example; then, and not till then, they may be expected to punish others without blushing.’ ‘As to our ingratitude’ (viz. towards William III in bringing about the Glorious Revolution) ‘I desire to be understood of that particular people who, pretending to be Protestants, have all along endeavored to reduce the liberties and religion of this nation into the hands of King James and his Popish powers, together with such who enjoy the peace and protection of the present government, and yet abuse and affront the king who procured it, and openly profess their uneasiness under him - these, by whatsoever names or titles they are dignified or distinguished, are the people aimed at; nor do I disown but that it is so much the temper of an Englishman to abuse his benefactor, that I could be glad to see it rectified.’ So he did not write as a Dutchman, but as himself a true Englishman, trying to rectify some wrong ideas among his own people. As to the main argument, against which he wrote, viz.: that William III was a foreigner, and that therefore he was to be rejected, the author explains in his Explanatory Preface: ‘True-born, in the sense of being not mixed up with foreign blood, hardly exist in England and may be could be found only among the Welsh, the Irish or the Scots. The whole English nation is a mix-up of Romans, Danes, Saxons and Normans, Welsh and Scots. ‘From hence I only infer that an Englishman, of all men, ought not to despise foreigners, as such; and I think the inference is just, since what they are today, we were yesterday, and tomorrow they will be like us.’ ‘But when I see the town full of lampoons and

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 324 invectives against Dutchmen, only because they are foreigners, and the king reproached and insulted by insolent pedants, and ballad-making poets, for employing foreigners, and for being a foreigner himself, I confess myself moved by it to remind our nation of their own origin, thereby to let them see what a banter is put upon ourselves by it; since, speaking of Englishmen ab origine, we are really all foreigners ourselves.’ ‘I could go on to prove it is also impolitic in us to discourage foreigners; since it is easy to make it appear that the multitude of foreign nations who have taken sanctuary here, have been the greatest additions to the wealth and strength of the nation; the essential whereof is the number of its inhabitants - nor would this nation ever have arrived to the degree of wealth and glory it now boasts of, if the addition of foreign nations, both as to manufactures and arms, had not been helpful to it. This is so plain, that he who is ignorant of it, is too dull to be talked with.’ ‘The Satire therefore I must allow to be just, till I am otherwise convinced; because nothing can be more ridiculous than to hear our people boast of that antiquity, which if it had been true, would have left us in so much worse condition than we are now; whereas we ought rather to boast among our neighbours that we are part of themselves, of the same origin as they, but bettered by our climate, and, like our language and manufactures, derived from them, and improved by us to a perfection greater than they can pretend to.’ ‘This we might have valued ourselves upon without vanity; but to disown our descent from them, talking big of our ancient families, and long originals, and stand at a distance from foreigners, like the en-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 325 thusiast in religion, with a “stand off. I am more holy than thou,” this is a thing so ridiculous in a nation derived from foreigners, as we are, that I could not but attack them as I have done.’ Thus far I quote from the author in his Explanatory Preface. This poem which is published in pamphlet form was enormously successful. About four years after its first appearance, the author tells us that he himself had published nine editions, besides which it had been printed twelve times by others without his concurrence. Of the cheap editions no less than 80,000 were disposed of, in the streets of London.1 Finally to give some specimen of what the poem really is, since it is too long to reprint in full, I quote a few passages:

HOW FOREIGNERS CAME TO ENGLAND

The Romans first with Julius Caesar came Including all the nations of that name Gauls, Greek and Lombards and by computation Auxiliaries or slaves of ev'ry nation. With Hengist, Saxons; Danes with Sweno came, In search of plunder, not in search of fame. Scots, Picts and Irish, from the Hibernian shore; And conq'ring William brought the Normans o'er. All these their barb'rous offspring left behind, The dregs of armies, they of all mankind; Blended with Britons, who before were here, Of whom the Welsh ha' blest the character. From these amphibious, ill-born mob began That vain, ill-natured thing, an Englishman.

THE ENGLISH NOBILITY

The great invading Norman let us know What conquerors in aftertimes might do. To every muskateer he brought to town He gave the lands which never were his own;

1 The Works of Daniel Defoe, Edinburgh, William P. Nimmo, p. 591.

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When first the English crown he did obtain He did not send his Dutchmen home again.1 No reassumptions in his reign were known, Davenant might there ha' let his book alone. No parliament his army could disband; He raised no money, for he paid in land. He gave his legions their eternal station And made them all freeholders of the nation. He canton'd out the country to his men, And every soldier was a denizen The rascals thus enriched he called them Lords, To please their upstart pride with new-made words And here begins the ancient pedigree That so exalts our poor nobility. 'Tis that from some French trooper they derive, Who with the Norman bastard did arrive; The trophies of the families appear; Some show the sword, the bow, and some the spear, Which their great ancestor, forsooth, did wear. These in the herald's register remain, Their noble mean extraction to explain; Yet who the hero was, no man can tell, Whether a drummer or a colonel; The silent record blushes to reveal Their undescended dark original.

THE MEN THAT DESPISE THE DUTCH

These are the heroes that despise the Dutch And rail at new-come foreigners so much; Forgetting that themselves are all derived From the most scoundrel race that ever lived; A horrid crowd of rambling thieves and drones, Who ransack'd kingdoms and dispeopled towns. The Pict and painted Briton, treach'rous Scot, By hunger, theft and rapine, higher brought; Norwegian pirates, bucaneering Danes, Whose red-haired offspring everywhere remains; Who, joined with Norman French, compound the breed From whence your true-born Englishmen proceed.

1 Here Defoe probably alludes to the Dutch weavers, whom William the Conqueror brought over to England as instructors for his people. William himself married a Dutch princess.

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INGRATITUDE OF ENGLAND TOWARDS THE DUTCH

If e'er this nation be distressed again To whomsoever they cry, they'll cry in vain; To heaven they cannot have the face to look Or, if they should, it would but heaven provoke; To hope for help from man, would be too much, Mankind would always tell 'em of the Dutch: How they came here our freedom to maintain, Were paid, and cursed, and hurried home again; How by their aid we first dissolved our fears, And then our helpers damn'd for foreigners - 'Tis not our English temper to do better, For Englishmen think ev'ry one their debtor.

WHY KING WILLIAM MADE SOME FOREIGNERS HIS INTIMATE FRIENDS

We blame the king, that he relies too much On strangers, Germans, Huguenots and Dutch, And seldom does his great affairs of state To English counsellors communicate. The fact might very well be answered thus: He had so often been betrayed by us, He must have been a madman to rely On English gentlemen's fidelity; For, laying other arguments aside, This thought might mortify our English pride, That foreigners have faithfully obeyed him, And none but Englishmen have ever betrayed him; They have our ships and merchants bought and sold, And bartered English blood for foreign gold; First to the French they sold our Turkey fleet, And injured Talmarsh next at Cameret; The king himself is sheltered from their snares, Not by his merits, but the crown he wears; Experience tells us 'tis the English way Their benefactors always to betray.

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THE CONCLUSION

Then let us boast of ancestors no more, Or deeds of heroes done in days of yore, In latent records of the ages past, Behind the rear of time, in long oblivion placed; For if our virtues must in lines descend The merit with the families would end And intermixtures would most fatal grow. For vice would be hereditary too; The tainted blood would of necessity Involuntary wickedness convey. Vice, like ill-nature, for an age or two, May seem a generation to pursue; But virtue seldom does regard the breed: Fools do the wise, and wise the fools succeed. What is 't to us what ancestors we had? If good, what better? or what worse, if bad? Examples are for imitation set, Yet all men follow virtue with regret. Could but our ancestors retrieve their fate, And see their offspring thus degenerate; How we contend for birth and names unknown, And build on their past actions, not our own; They'd cancel records, and their tombs deface, And openly disown the vile degenerate race; For fame of families is all a cheat, It's personal virtue only makes us great.

Everybody who reads these fragments, which do not amount together to a third part of the poem, must recognize that there is a naive power, combined with a charming reality, in the language of Defoe, which made him dreadful for his enemies, and a not-to-be-neglected help for his friends. During several years Defoe used his great abilities as publicist in serving the party of the glorious revolution, which was also the party of all Protestants, both in England and in Holland. In the midst of the great spiritual struggle between all kinds of factions, conflicting opinions, con-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 329 spiracies, secret and confessed hatred, noble tendencies and selfish aspirations, Defoe on his own personal responsibility, without power or protection back of him, fought like a lonely lion for the great cause, and consequently the better part of the English nation, the common citizens admired and loved him. Defoe takes suo jure not only an honorable place in English literature, but also a more honorable one in that important and most critical period of the world's history, and in the history of Protestantism, which is called the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Defoe was a born writer, and his influence was a considerable one with the masses of the English people, and of course, made him many enemies among the Roman Catholics and the secret adherents of the Stuarts. For his True Born Englishman he was amply rewarded. ‘How this poem was the occasion,’ he says in later time, ‘of my being known to his Majesty, how I was afterwards received by him, how employed abroad, and how, above my capacity of deserving, rewarded, is no part of the present case, and is only mentioned here as I take all occasions to do, for expressing the honour I ever preserved for the immortal and glorious memory of that greatest and best of all princes and whom it was my honour and advantage to call master as well as sovereign, whose goodness to me I never forgot and whose memory I never patiently heard abused and never can do so; and who, had he lived, would never have suffered me to be treated as I have been in this world.’1 After the death of King William, Defoe continued to defend liberty and toleration for many years, but missing his noble protector and persecuted in every way that was possible by his many and powerful

1 Appeal to honour and justice, quoted. Works of Defoe, p. 4.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 330 enemies, he died in 1731, a poor man. Satisfied with, and totally absorbed in, the sovereignty over his own field as a writer,1 as an author of polemics, and as a poet; inspired to the bottom of his soul by the highest principles of Protestantism and Democracy; a staunch defender of liberty and toleration and one-sidedly attached to this great task of his life, like most geniuses in history, he could not succeed in any other business, and with pity we see that after the death of King William, a protector to shield his domestic life, and to guarantee to this great man even a decent living was lacking. At the time when William and Mary came to the throne in 1688, Defoe, born in 1661, was still a youth, but was nevertheless attached already with his whole heart to the great cause, and in all his life he never alludes to King William but in language of deep gratitude and intense attachment. Scarcely had the king breathed his last, when his enemies vented their hatred in the most indecent manner, by malignant speeches, toasts and lampoons. This roused Defoe's indignation, and urged him again to dip his pen into bitter ink, and produce: The Mock-Mourners, by way of elegy on King William, 1702. In a few weeks it passed through five large editions. Defoe was a man with a character - a splendid, magnificent character. The transition from John Dryden to Daniel Defoe, is that from darkness to the light; from the hireling to the sovereignty of a man with sacred principles; from a spiritual prostitute to the martyr of a holy cause; from a devilish dividedness against himself, dissolving itself in sarcastic mockery with every cause, to the serene heavenly steadfastness of a man fighting for principles which were dear to him, to his people, to his sovereign and to all Protes-

1 Defoe wrote upwards of 250 distinct productions. Life of Defoe, p. 4, in The Works of Defoe.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 331 tantism. Dryden followed the example of the man who betrayed his Master, after having eaten his bread, and after he saw that suffering for his Master's sake were coming; and he did this not once but repeatedly; he did it, as far as we know even with some remorse though with a brazen forehead confessing himself shamelessly, ‘O gracious God! how far have we profaned thy heavenly gift of poetry,’ which words remind us, without willing it, of those other words: ‘I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.’ Defoe followed in the footsteps of the Apostles and Prophets, in the footsteps of his Master and in those of all the heroes and martyrs of Christendom, sacrificing all his cares and abilities, to the higher ideals of life, suffering scorn and disdain, persecution and poverty, standing for the honor and name of his protector, not only so long as he enjoyed his favor, but during half a lifetime, after the death of his king had made all protection impossible. It is not till in our time that the researches of William Lee1 have brought to light how important a part Defoe played in bringing forth and maintaining the blessing results of the Glorious Revolution. A star of such brilliancy could not escape attracting again and again, the attention of the astronomer until its real value and greatness should be fixed forever. Quite another character from Defoe, was Matthew Prior. More a poet than a hero, he served King William III during the whole time of his reign, was for several years attached to the English Embassy at the Hague, and during the deliberations followed by the treaty of peace at Ryswyck, 1697, he was secretary to the Embassy. At the Hague he wrote his witty English Ballad on the taking of Namur in 1695, a

1 William Lee, Life and newly discovered writings of Daniel Defoe, 3 Vols. London, J. Camden Hotten, 1869.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 332 parody of Boileau's Ode on the capture of Namur by the French three years before. In 1698 he was sent to Paris as secretary to the English Embassy. In one of his letters to Lord Halifax he tells how he saw the exiled English King James II at the court of the French King: ‘I faced old James and all his court the other day at St. Cloud. Vive Guillaume. You never saw such a strange figure as the old bully is, lean, worn, and rivelled, not unlike Neale the projector. The queen looks melancholy, but otherwise well enough: their equipages are all very ragged and contemptable.’1 But after the death of King William, when the influence of the Tories was in the ascendant, Prior joined their ranks and later became a close friend of Lord Bolingbroke. During his early days in the political business at the Hague he tells us, ‘he had enough to do in studying French and Dutch.’ Prior was not a man after the heart, either of Defoe or of Burnet. To please those ironsides of King William a stronger and more heroic character was required than that of Prior. His devotion to the cause of King William and Queen Mary was nevertheless an honest one, as the spirit of his poems abundantly show. Some of these poems are really beautiful, and full of tender feelings and noble thoughts. By his diplomatic career he had the best opportunity to learn the policy of William III, an opportunity, such as was given to very few. Prior was secretary to Lord Dursley, but that nobleman's gout gave the young man many opportunities for personal communication with his sovereign. His readiness and address caused William to give him the half-serious nickname of ‘Secretaire du Roy’ and his appointment of ‘Gentleman to the King's

1 Life of Prior, by Reginald Brinsley Johnson, in Prior's Works, Ed. London, 1892, p. 26.

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Bedchamber.’1 And his verses bear witness of the intimate information, which he by his position had daily opportunity to acquire. In his famous ‘Carmen Seculare for the year 1700’ he wrote about William III, Prince of Orange, for instance these lines:

Whither wouldst thou further look? Read William's acts, and close the ample book; Peruse the wonders of his dawning life: How, like Alcides, he began; With infant patience calm'd seditious strife, And quell'd the snakes which round his cradle ran.

Describe his youth, attentive to alarms, By dangers form'd, and perfected in arms; When conq'ring, mild; when conquer'd, not disgrac'd; By wrongs not lessen'd, nor by triumphs rais'd: Superior to the blind events Of little human accidents; And constant to his first decree, To curb the proud, to set the injur'd free; To bow the haughty neck, and raise the suppliant knee.

His opening years to riper manhood bring; And see the hero perfect in the king: Imperious arms by manly reasons sway'd, And power supreme by free consent obey'd; With how much haste his mercy meets his foes: And how unbounded his forgiveness flows; With what desire he makes his subjects bless'd, His favours granted ere his throne adress'd: What trophies o'er our captiv'd hearts he rears, By arts of peace more potent, than by wars: How over himself as o'er the world, he reigns, His morals strengthening what his law ordains.

Through all his thread of life already spun, Becoming grace and proper action run: The piece by Virtue's equal hand is wrought,

1 Works of Prior, Biography, p. XXIII.

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Mixt with no crime, and shaded with no fault; No footsteps of the victor's rage Left in the camp where William did engage: No tincture of the monarch's pride Upon the royal purple spied; His fame, like gold, the more 'tis tried, The more shall its intrinsic worth proclaim; Shall pass the combat of the searching flame, And triumph o'er the vanquish'd heat, For ever coming out the same, And losing nor its lustre nor its weight.

This is just as true to history, as it is beautifully told and reminds us of those other lines, intended to describe King William's character:

When certain to o'ercome, inclined to save, Tardy to vengeance and with mercy brave or those others:

Serene yet strong, majestic yet sedate, Swift without violence, without terror great.

That Prior understood something of William's great task, the following lines may show:

Europe freed, and France repelled, The hero from the height beheld; He spoke the word, that war and rage should cease; He bid the Maas and Rhine in safety flow; And dictated a lasting peace To the rejoicing world below; To rescued states, and vindicated crowns, His equal hand prescribed their ancient bounds; Ordained whom every province should obey; How far each monarch should extend his sway; Taught them how clemency made power revered; And that the prince beloved was truly feared. Firm by his side unspotted Honour stood, Pleased to confess him not so great as good; His head with brighter beams fair Virtue decked Than those which all his numerous crowns reflect; Established freedom clapped her joyful wings; Proclaimed the first of men, and best of kings.

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In the phrase ‘unspotted Honour,’ the poet alludes to Queen Mary, who was William's wife, and here too, indeed, he does not tell anything more than the simple truth, although far less than the whole truth. Whatever thousand-fold crimes may have been committed by the Stuarts, and whatever horrible characters the House of Stuart may have produced, there is at least one glorious spot in its bloody and scandalous history, and that glorious spot is Queen Mary. Whoever has read the secret diary and the letters of Mary, in which she from day to day expressed her sorrows and her joy, her unmatched love for her William, her devotedness to him, her clear understanding of his great task, her piety and at the same time her womanly strength to assist her husband, - whoever has looked through those precious pages full of the most tender affections, must confess that neither Holland nor England ever saw a princess at the side of a sovereign, with a character superior, or even equal to that of Queen Mary. Prior did not know these sacred pages, because they did not become accessible to the public until more than 150 years later, but Prior knew the Prince and the Queen personally, and his personal impression gives a testimony not differing from the truth as discovered in her secret papers. In his Ode, presented to the King on his Majesty's arrival in Holland after the death of the Queen, 1695, the poet sings:

For her the wise and great shall mourn; When late records her deeds repeat; Ages to come, and men unborn Shall bless her name and sigh her fate.

Fair Albion shall, with faithful trust, Her holy Queen's sad reliques guard;

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Till Heaven awakes the precious dust, And gives the saint her full reward.

And in another place in the same Ode, he writes:

She was instructed to command, Great king, by long obeying thee; Her sceptre, guided by thy hand Preserved the isles, and ruled the sea.

As William married Mary when she was only sixteen years of age, while he was twenty-six, and took her out of her English life to Holland, the development of Mary's beautiful character is certainly no little credit for the Prince. To this probably the poet alludes when he says:

From Mary's glory, Angels trace The beauty of her partner's soul.

But not only do the names of King William and Queen Mary connect the name of Prior with Holland. During his years of abode in Holland, Prior studied the Dutch language, and made himself acquainted with Dutch literature, as, for instance, he shows in one poem, entitled:

A PASSAGE IN THE MORIAE ENCOMIUM OF ERASMUS IMITATED

In awful pomp, and melancholy state See settled Reason on the judgment seat; Around her crowd Distrust and Doubt and Fear, And thoughtful Foresight, and tormenting Care: Far from the throne, the trembling Pleasures stand Chained up, or exiled by her stern command Wretched her subject, gloomy sits the queen; Till happy Chance reverts the cruel scene: And apish Folly with her wild resort Of wit and jest desturbs the solemn court. See the fantastic minstrelsy advance To breathe the song, and animate the dance.

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Blest the usurper! happy the surprise! Her mimic postures catch our eager eyes; Her jingling bells affect our captive ear; And in the sights we see, and sounds we hear, Against our judgment she our sense employs; The laws of troubled Reason she destroys; And in their place rejoices to indite Wild schemes of mirth, and plans of loose delight.

Still another little poem of Prior reminds us of Dutch influence, it is as follows:

A DUTCH PROVERB

Fire, water, woman, are man's ruin; Says wise professor Van der Bruin. By flames a house I hired was lost Last year, and I must pay the cost. This spring the rains overflowed my ground; And my best Flanders mare was drowned. A slave I am to Clara's eyes; The gipsy knows her power and flies. Fire, water, woman, are my ruin; And great thy wisdom Van der Bruin.

How well Prior understood the character of his great master, King William, and how well he represented him, he showed for instance at Paris, where he was for a time a secretary to the Earl of Portland, the English ambassador. ‘While he was in that kingdom, one of the officers of the French king's household, showing him the royal apartments and curiosities at Versailles, especially the paintings of Le Brun, wherein the victories of Louis XIV were glorified, asked him whether King William's actions were to be seen in his palace; “No sir” replied Mr. Prior; “the monuments of my master's actions are to be seen everywhere, but in his own house.”’1 Another famous English author, whose name is

1 British Plutarch, Life of Prior, p. 31.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 338 closely connected with Holland, who lived several years in the Netherlands, learned there the practice of toleration, married a Dutch lady, and even became a naturalized Dutch citizen, was the well known chaplain of William and Mary at the Hague, the clergyman and historian, scholar and polemic, Gilbert Burnet. Born in Edinburgh in 1643, Burnet got his education in Scotland, and after having finished his studies for the ministry at , went to England, stayed for six months in Oxford and Cambridge, and then took a voyage to Holland and France in 1674. ‘At Amsterdam by the help of a Jewish Rabbi, he perfected himself in the Hebrew language, and likewise became acquainted with the leading men of the different persuasions tolerated in that country; as Calvinists, Arminians, Lutherans, Anabaptists, Brownists, Papists and Unitarians, amongst each of which, he used frequently to declare, he met with men of such unfeigned piety and virtue, that he became fixed in a strong principle of universal charity, and an invincible abhorrence of all severities on account of religious dissensions.’1 The practice of toleration, as he saw it in Holland, and nowhere else at that time, was for Burnet a new light shining in the darkness of persecution and narrow-mindedness. It changed the whole system of his thoughts. As a man thoroughly converted to the principles of toleration, Burnet returned from Holland to England, the England of the Stuarts. After that time he could not help trying to bring over from Holland a tolerant spirit into the minds and the hearts of his own nation. He looked now from another angle upon the tyranny of every predominant party, and the persecution of every party in minority. Conflict and trouble was unavoidable, as a great part

1 The British Plutarch, Life of Burnet, p. 50.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 339 of his compatriots did not see things as he had seen them in the Netherlands. Soon after he was appointed professor of divinity at the University of Glasgow the Royalists took offense at his opinions, and brought accusations against him, by which he saw himself forced to quit his position and to move, first to London, where also after some years it became intolerable for him, until, with the accession of King James II to the throne, he obtained leave to go out of the kingdom in 1685. Burnet then visited Paris, went through Italy, and stayed at Rome for a while, but his intention was to settle down in the Netherlands. ‘In 1688, he came to Utrecht, with an intention to settle in some of the Seven Provinces. There he received an invitation from the Prince and Princess of Orange, to whom their party in England had recommended him, to come to The Hague; which he accepted. He was soon made acquainted with the secret of their counsels and advised the fitting out of a fleet in Holland sufficient to support their designs and encourage their friends. This and the account of his travels in which he endeavored to blend popery and tyranny together and represent them as inseparable, with some papers, reflecting on the proceedings of England, that came out in single sheets and were dispersed in several parts of England, most of which Mr. Burnet owns himself the author of, alarmed King James, and were the occasion of his writing twice against him to the Princess of Orange; and insisting, by his ambassador, on his being forbid the court; which, after much importunity, was done, though he continued to be trusted and employed as before, the Dutch ministers consulting him daily. But that which gave, he tells us, the crisis to the king's anger, was

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 340 the news of Burnet's being married to a considerable fortune at The Hague.’ ‘To put an end to his frequent conferences with the ministers, a prosecution for high treason was set on foot against him both in England and in Scotland; but Burnet receiving the news thereof before it came to the States, he avoided the storm, by petitioning for and obtaining without any difficulty, a bill of naturalization in order to accomplish his intended marriage with Mary Scot, a Dutch lady of considerable fortune, who, with the advantage of birth, had those of a fine person and understanding.’ ‘After his marriage with this lady, being legally under the protection of Holland, he undertook, in a letter to the Earl of Middleton, to answer all the matters laid to his charge and added, that, being now naturalized in Holland, his allegiance was during his stay in these parts, transferred from his Majesty to the States-General; and in another letter, that if, upon non-appearance a sentence should be passed upon him, he might, to justify himself, be forced to give an account of the share he had in affairs, in which he might be led to mention what he was afraid would not please his Majesty. ‘These expressions gave such offense to the English court that, dropping the former prosecution, they proceeded against him as guilty of high treason, and a sentence of outlawry was passed upon him and thereupon the king first demanded him to be delivered up and afterwards insisted on his being banished the Seven Provinces; which the States refused, alleging, that he was become their subject; and if the king had anything to lay to Dr. Burnet's charge, justice should be done in their court. ‘This put an end to all farther applications to the

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States; and Dr. Burnet, secured from any danger, went on in assisting and forwarding the important affair of the revolution. ‘He wrote also several pamphlets in support of the Prince of Orange's designs and assisted in drawing up his Declaration and when the Prince undertook the expedition to England, Dr. Burnet accompanied him as his chaplain.’ ‘After his landing at Exeter he proposed and drew up the association and was of no small service on several occasions by a seasonable display of pulpit-eloquence, to animate the Prince's followers and gain over others to his interest. ‘Nor did his services pass unrewarded; for King William had not been many days on the throne before Dr. Burnet was advanced to the seat of Bishop of Salisbury, in the place of Seth Ward who died; Dr. Burnet being consecrated May 31, 1689. He distinguished himself in the House of Lords by declaring for moderate measures with regard to the clergy, who scrupled to take the oaths and for a toleration of the dissenters.’1 Besides many pamphlets, Burnet wrote two great works, the History of my own time and The History of the Reformation which are standard works among the literature of English history, and in all his pamphlets and works we feel the same spirit of freedom and toleration, for which he, at so early a time in his life, received an inspiration in the Netherlands. Another man, belonging to the same cycle of brilliant stars that shine around the two grand figures of William and Mary, and who was inspired by the spirit of the glorious Republic of the Low Countries, was John Locke, who after having lived in Holland

1 The British Plutarch, Life of Burnet, p. 55-58.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 342 for years, came back to England with the Revolution of 1688. His main task lay in the field of Philosophy, the results of his researches may in some respects be doubtful, but his love for liberty and toleration, as well as the brilliance of his genius are unquestionable, while his personal character, and even his piety, have aroused the admiration and love of all who have belonged to the intimate circle of his relatives and friends. John Locke was born at Wrington in Somersetshire in the year 1632; was very carefully educated under the severe leadership of his father; studied physics and philosophy at Oxford; was for many years under the protection of Lord Ashley, Earl of Shaftesbury, and being of a weak physical constitution, he went in 1675 to Montpellier in France to restore his health. From Montpellier he went to Paris where he met Mr. Guenelon a celebrated physician from Amsterdam, ‘who held anatomical conferences there with great reputation,’ and when in 1682 his protector Shaftesbury, prosecuted by the Stuart government for high treason, escaped and fled to Holland, John Locke followed him thither.’1 ‘He had not been a year in Holland, when he was accused at the English court of having written certain tracts against the government; and though another person was afterwards discovered to be the author, yet being observed to join in company with several English malcontents at The Hague, this conduct was communicated to our resident there, to the Earl of Sunderland, then Secretary of State, who accompanied the king therewith, and his Majesty ordered the proper methods to be taken for expelling him from the College,’ Locke being a member of Christ Church College at Oxford. Since that time it

1 British Plutarch, Life of Locke, p. 144.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 343 was dangerous for Locke to return to England. ‘In May, 1685, after accession of James II to the throne, the English envoy at The Hague demanded him to be delivered up by the States-General, upon suspicion of having been concerned in the Duke of Monmouth's invasion. This obliged him to lie concealed nearly for twelve months, till it became sufficiently known that he had no hand in that enterprise. During this privacy, which, by the assistance of some friends, was rendered very secure from any danger of a discovery, he composed his first letter upon Toleration, which being translated from the Latin original into English and Dutch was printed in London.’1 ‘Towards the latter end of 1686 he appeared again in public, and, in the following year he formed a weekly assembly at Amsterdam, with Messieurs Limborch and LeClerc, who were joined by some others in the view of holding conferences upon subjects of learning. These two divines were among our author's first friends in Holland and he held a correspondence with both of them till the day of his death; not long after which there came out several letters that had passed between him and the former, whereby it appears, that Mr. Limborch was very serviceable to our author as well with respect to some improvements in his Essay on Human Understanding as to his Reasonableness of Christianity and on the other hand these favors were repaid by Mr. Locke in procuring him Archbishop Tillotson's assistance in his History of the Inquisition which was afterwards dedicated by that author of his grace. As to Mr. LeClerc, the dedication of his Ontologia to our author shows the profound esteem he had for him.2

1 Idem., p. 149. 2 British Plutarch, Life of Locke, p. 153.

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In 1689 Locke returned to England in the fleet which conveyed the Princess of Orange to her consort. King William recognized and appreciated Locke, as one of the powerful defenders of toleration, and ‘left it to his choice, whether he would be envoy at the court of the emperor, that of elector of Brandenburgh, or any other, where he thought the air most suitable to him’ as he was suffering from asthma and the king himself knew what that meant. ‘But he waived all these on account of the ill state of his health, which disposed him gladly to accept another offer that was made him by Sir Francis Masnam and his lady, of an apartment in their country-seat at Oates in Essex. This situation proved in all respects so agreeable to him, that he spent a great part of the remainder of his life at it. Locke died at that same hospitable home in 1704, while Mrs. Masman was reading to him out of the Psalms, which he asked her to do during the last hour of his life.’1 From the facts, mentioned above, we see that Locke spent no less than six years in Holland; that he lived there mostly in the circle of the Arminians - the Arminian professors, Limborgh and LeClerc being his intimate friends. In the Netherlands he found refuge, friendship and scholarly learning. There he wrote his treatise on Toleration; there he continued the researches laid down in his Essay on Human Understanding; there he wrote the substance of his later published Thoughts concerning Education; and he published his Two Treatises of Civil Government in defense of the Revolution of 1688 in England shortly after he left Holland. The influence which Holland with its republican institutions, with its freedom, with

1 British Plutarch, Life of Locke, p. 174.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 345 its many scholars and famous universities, with its generally high standard of education, had on the development of so subtle and tender genius as Locke was, can hardly be over-estimated. At the time when William of Orange came to England to deliver the English people from oppression and persecution, and to save all Protestantism from being annihilated, he had with him a splendid army; an army in which served the flower of the Huguenot nobility, of German and English refugees and Dutch soldiers trained in the struggle for liberty, an army of men, whose slaughtered relatives and devastated properties, called them to the long desired opportunity of facing their persecutors on equal terms, and who found their happy day in Ireland on the banks of the Boyne. But there was still another army with William and Mary; an army equipped with more decisive weapons than sword and musket; an army of unlimited spiritual strength, whose victory was to be won in the very heart and soul of the English nation, and that should defeat its enemies far beyond the borders of the British Isles; an army in whose ranks a Burnet served, whose thundering voice from the pulpit sounded through Great Britain from the Channel to the Highlands of Scotland; an army in which a John Locke fought with his two-edged sword of logic, human understanding, lifting up the standard of toleration, and smashing the arguments of pious tyranny in such a way that further discussion could be met with a smile; an army in which Daniel Defoe, with never-matched satire scourged the folly and corruption of the tyrants, pointing out to the nation that, while at the Stuart's court under cover of pretended ‘divine right’ the most frivolous debauchery of every kind was raging, at the same time the masses

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 346 of the most honest citizens all over the country were crying from the depth of their misery to Heaven, because they saw their dearest ones either murdered on the scaffold or sighing in the darkness of the dungeon; an army in the midst of which the lyric voice was heard of a man like Prior, who saw, and therefore praised in his songs, the virtues and piety, the modesty and the God-given strength of both William and Mary in leading the nation to safety and liberty; an army not of foreigners, but of the best English patriots, trained however in the school of freedom and toleration at the other side of the Channel. Here we observe the influence of Holland on all the most edifying parts of English literature.

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Chapter XXXVII Holland's Decline in the Eighteenth Century. Fielding, Smollett, Goldsmith, Southey and Henry Taylor

Like Greece, like Palestine, like Rome and like every nation that has contributed to the development of the world's history, Holland had its rise, its glory and its decline. The rise of the Netherlands goes as far back as the origin of the Flemish cities, and the development of democracy which began with the crusades. The glorious period is for the Southern Netherlands that from 1300 until the last half of the sixteenth century when the Spanish armies began their devastation, and for the Northern provinces, the present Netherlands, from the eighty-years war, until, after the period of William III, the stadholder of Holland and the King of England. During the eighteenth century we see the decline, and with the French revolution, the downfall, of the great Republic. It seems to be a fact with every leading nation in the world's history, that each nation has a certain time of overabundant energy, a triumphant spirit of enthusiasm that brings it to the highest development of human society in its epoch, but that after this period of nearly super-human endeavor, there comes a period of apparent exhaustion, of inertia, like that of old age in human life and it has never happened in history that any one of those nations, in which the energy of the human race has for a certain period attained its high-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 348 est expression, has in a later period and for a second time regained that leadership. Holland in the eighteenth century was in her time of decline, approaching to her downfall, with a future certainty of some revival in the nineteenth century but never destined to regain the leading position which it had held for centuries up to the death of that greatest of all the Princes of Orange, William III, King of England. On the contrary England in the eighteenth century was growing very fast. The eighteenth century marks for England the accession of the British empire to world power; it is the age of Samuel Johnson, the age of Sir Joshua Reynolds of Hogarth and of Gainsborough, ending in triumphs even over the short but desperate empire of . The Nelson-monument on Trafalgar Square in the center of London indicates the very place where for the time being the centre of the world's trade and industry was to be found. Greece was once the leader of the world in art and literature, but the great task of Greece once having been performed the time of Pericles never will come back; the Roman empire of ‘divus Augustus,’ that gave to the world its system of civil law, passed away, never to return; the Frankish empire of Charlemagne, which christianized and educated Western Europe, and left an everlasting blessing, is only an event in the history of many centuries ago; the French empire of ‘le Roy Soleil’is no more, its vanity only being reflected in the ever-changing fashion of to day; Holland spent its best blood and its greatest energy in securing freedom and toleration for the civilized world, but after having performed this grand task, it may hold a respectable position among the nations of Europe, but the time of its glory, the time of William the Silent and Maurice, of Frederick Henry and Will-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 349 iam III, of Rembrandt and Vondel, of Tromp and De Ruyter, will never come back; England at the height of its world empire and Germany as its rival may continue for a while, but old Europe as a whole, devouring itself by the most horrible war in history, sees already coming the time, if it has not come yet, in which America will lead the world; the overwhelming energy of the New World, the American spirit of today, absorbing elements from all the nations of the earth, reuniting the human race in her national life after a dissecting process of many centuries in the old world, presents today an incomparable aspect of leadership, such as only our modern development has been able to produce. Such is the unchangeable logic of history, and as sure as the sun rises in the East and walks through heaven until she sets in the West, so sure is the course of the World's history from its beginning in the Eastern empires of Babylon and Egypt, taking its course through the European continent from Greece to the British Isles, until its light is seen on Manhattan and Plymouth Rock, and its full glory comes over a tremendous new continent, brightening the valleys of the Alleghenies and the Rocky Mountains and developing a world-empire between the Atlantic and the Pacific; an empire not of fighting monarchs always greedy to conquer by brute force, but an empire of the most advanced civilization which the world has ever seen. Such being the case, we cannot be surprised by the fact that since the beginning of the eighteenth century, England exerted more influence on Holland than Holland on England, and more especially that the latter influence has been very limited indeed. Of course the spirit of decline was not felt in equal proportion in every department of national life.

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There was no longer in Holland any more, any such fighting and dominating, triumphant spirit either in the army or in the navy; great generals and admirals were lacking; most Dutch families, grown wealthy by trade and industry were now resting on their victories in beautiful houses along the canals of Amsterdam and along the rivers in the country. But the universities (especially that of Leyden), with their beautiful libraries and laboratories maintained pretty well their old fame, and remained among the best centers of learning and scholarship in the world. So it happened that even during the eighteenth century hundreds of English and specially of Scotch students, came to Leyden to follow for some years special courses at the University. Amongst these English students at the University of Leyden we find at least two men who became prominent in English literature. Henry Fielding and Oliver Goldsmith, and at least two others, Smollett and Southey, who show in their works impressions obtained directly from Holland. Henry Fielding (1707-1754), one of England's first novelists, well known for his Tom Jones, ‘the boisterous, easy-going, masculine Henry Fielding,’ th1e greatest contrast with the ‘sentimentalist, water-drinker and vegetarian Richardson,’ the satirist in literature, as Hogarth was in art, after having studied at Eton College, was sent to the University of Leyden to finish his education. ‘When most of his companions,’ says his biographer Leslie Stephen in the first volume of his works, ‘went to Oxford or Cambridge, Fielding for some reason was sent to Leyden. He lost no time, we are assured, in placing himself under the celebrated Vitriarius, then professor of civil law, and was assiduous in attending lectures and taking notes. The selection of Leyden seems rather curious, as one

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 351 would fancy that the celebrated Vitriarius had little authority in Westminster.’ When writing this, Mr. Stephen probably did not know much about Vitriarius and the condition of law studies at that time. In those days it was the study of the natural law, ‘jus naturae,’ which was considered as the highest and most promising part of the study of law. Whoever wished to be a good scholar in the field of law, had to study the ‘jus naturae.’ And it was just that study, which professor Vitriarius had made a specialty of. When, in the year 1720, Vitriarius, who was at that time professor at Utrecht, accepted the call from Leyden, he opened his courses with an oration ‘de Juris naturae necessitate et utilitate,’ a very vital question in the study of law during the eighteenth century, and it looks very doubtful whether a man like Vitriarius, who was so well up to date for his time, enjoyed little authority in Westminster Hall.’ That Mr. Stephen gives not a single reason for his statement is therefore no surprise. ‘Scotch students of law frequently resorted to Leyden, for example the immortal Boswell, a generation later; and medical students, like Goldsmith and Akenside might go there to attend lectures, or to obtain a degree.’ John Wilkes, too, was sent to Leyden some twenty years afterwards, because his parents were dissenters, and wished to protect him (as they certainly did) from the contamination of English orthodoxy. In Fielding's case, it seems probable that pecuniary considerations were already coming into play; and it appears that as funds became scarce, he speedily returned to London with that famous allowance of 200 pounds a year, which ‘anybody might pay who would.’ About the only reference to his Dutch experiences which I have noticed an Fielding's works

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 352 is a comparison in the Journey from this World to the Next. An offensive smell as he approaches the city of diseases, ‘very much resembled the savour which travellers in summer perceive as they approach to that beautiful village of the Hague, arising from those delicious canals, which, as they consist of standing water, do at that time emit odours greatly agreeable to a Dutch taste,1 but not so pleasant to any other. Those perfumes, with the assistance of a fair wind, begin to affect persons of quick olfactory nerves at a league's distance, and increase gradually as you approach.’ The comparison may possibly recall Dante, but it does not throw much light upon Fielding's academical career. He refers also, in the essay on the Increase of Robbers, to the rarity and solemnity of capital punishment in Holland.2 Fielding studied at Leyden during the years 1726-1728. That all these English students at the University of Leyden, as a rule, profited more from their life among the Dutch people, in the circles of the University, than from the courses of the professors, given either in Dutch or in Latin, can surprise nobody. For students with literary abilities like Fielding, Goldsmith, Boswell, Smollett and others, nothing could be more educative than to observe the customs and habits of a foreign people, in their greater and smaller towns, in the peculiarities of their homes, their dresses, their morals, their religion, their art, and the way they made a living. It made them heed the differences in many respects from what they saw at home; it opened their eyes to the peculiarity of all common things in life, because they learned that all these things could be different and in reality were different among other

1 Here speaks apparently the silly scorn of that innocent pride by which so many an English patriot has brought himself to ridicule. 2 Stephens, Biography of Fielding, Vol. I, p. VII and VIII.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 353 nations, and it revealed to them the interest of describing the minutest details of life in their novels and poems, in their plays and narratives. Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), who studied at Leyden during the years 1754 and 1755, shows the same experience. Hardly anything in his works reminds us of his following the courses of the professors, and on the contrary with keen observation he looks at thousands of things, which he saw everywhere around him, and which made him make an antithesis between what he saw at home, and what he saw among the Dutch people. In a letter to his uncle, Contarine, written from Leyden, ‘he touches humorously on the contrast between the Dutch about him and the Scotch he has just left; describes the phlegmatic pleasures of the country, the ice-boats, and the delights of canal travelling.’ ‘They sail in covered boats drawn by horses,’ he says; ‘and in these you are sure to meet people of all nations.’ There the Dutch slumber, the French chatter, and the English play at cards. Any man who likes company may have it to his taste. ‘For my part, I generally detached myself from all society, and was wholly taken up in observing the face of the country. Nothing can equal its beauty; wherever I turn my eye, fine houses, elegant gardens, statues, grottos, vistas presented themselves; but when you enter their towns you are charmed beyond description. No misery is to be seen here; every one is usefully employed.’1 After these quotations Mr. Dobson makes the just remark - Already, it is plain, he was insensibly storing up material for the subsequent ‘Traveller,’2 and we may add - He was training himself in seeing things, while he could not help seeing them, because they

1 Austin Dobson, Life of Oliver Goldsmith, p. 35 and 36.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 354 were so different from what his eyes were accustomed to see and so, as he saw things, he created the possibility of describing them. On the contrary, so far as his life in the University is concerned, his biographer says - ‘Little is known in the way of fact, as to his residence at Leyden. Gaubius, the professor in chemistry, is indeed mentioned in one of his works; but it would be too much to conclude an intimacy from a chance reference. From the account of a fellowcountryman, Dr. Ellis, then a student like himself, he was, as always, frequently pressed for money, often supporting himself by teaching his native language, and then, in the hope of recruiting his finances, resorting to the gambling-table. On one occasion, according to this informant, he had a successful run, but, disregarding the advice of his friend to hold his hand, he lost his gains almost immediately. By and by the old restless longing to see foreign countries, probably dating from the days when he was a pupil under Thomas Byrne, came back with redoubled force. The recent death of the Danish savant and playwright, Baren de Holberg, who in his youth had made the tour of Europe on foot, probably suggested the way; and equipped with a small loan from Dr. Ellis he determined to leave Leyden. Unhappily, in passing a florist's, he saw some rare bulbs, which he straightway transmitted to his Uncle Contarine. His immediate resources being thus disposed of, he quitted Leyden in February, 1755, with only one clean shirt and no money in his pocket.’1 What Goldsmith later in his poem The Traveller wrote about Holland is this:

To men of other minds2 my fancy flies, Embosomed in the deep, where Holland lies. Methinks her patient sons before me stand

2 Idem., p. 35. 1 Dobson, Life of Oliver Goldsmith, p. 36. 2 He turns from France to Holland.

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Where the broad ocean leans against the land And, sedulous to stop the coming tide, Lift the tall rampire,1 artificial pride Onward, methinks, and diligently slow, The firm connected bulwark seems to grow, Spreads its long arms amidst the watery roar, Scoops out an empire, and usurps the shore; While the pent ocean, rising o'er the pile, Sees an amphibious world beneath him smile; The slow canal, the yellow-blossomed vale, The willow-tufted bank, the gliding plain A new creation rescued from his reign.

Thus, while around the wave-subjected soil Impels the native to repeated toil, Industrious habits in each bosom reign, And industry begets the love of gain. Hence all the good from opulence that springs, With all those ills superfluous treasure brings, Are here displayed. Their much-loved wealth imparts Convenience, plenty, elegance, and arts; But view them closer, craft and fraud appear; Even liberty itseif is bartered here: At gold's superior charms all freedom flies. The needy sell it and the rich man buys. A land of tyrants and a den of slaves, Here wretches seek dishonourable graves, And, calmly bent, to servitude conform, Dull as their lakes that slumber in the storm.

Heavens! how unlike their Belgic sires of old! Rough, poor, content, ungovernably bold, War in each breast, and freedom on each brow; How much unlike the sons of Britian now!

These verses show clearly the master mind of Goldsmith in keen observation. His eyes were open for the glory of the Dutch Republic in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and his admiration is unrestricted. But at the same time he saw the decline of

1 ‘Rampire, the wall of a dyke or canal.’ - Ed. of Goldsmith's works.

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Holland, and how England was now what the Netherlands were before. No historian could describe it better than we see it reflected in the mirror of the poet's mind, and expressed in these inspired lines. In reading them, we feel a contact with the author of The Deserted Village, and The Vicar of Wakefield. How different are the impressions which another English author of the same period, viz., Smollett, wrote down from a trip through the Netherlands in the eighteenth century! Tobias George Smollett (1720-1771) is considered to be one of the four great English novelists of the mid-eighteenth century, the other three being Richardson, Fielding and Sterne. In one of his best novels, Peregrine Pickle, considered by his biographers to be, for a great part, autobiography, his hero makes a trip through the Netherlands. As Peregrine Pickle was published in 1751, and Smollett was travelling in France during the year before, it is very probable that he came back from France through Belgium and Holland. In that case, he stayed in Holland only for a very short time, and while writing his novel his impressions must have been lively and written down during, or immediately after the trip. And this is just what we find in Peregrine Pickle's trip through Holland. He comes from France, travels through Belgium, and in Chapters 64 and 65 he describes how he arrived at Rotterdam, went from that place to the Hague, Amsterdam and Leyden and returned to Rotterdam, whence he went back to England. This description is remarkable in more than one respect; remarkable for what he sees in Holland, and still more remarkable for what he passes by without ever noticing; remarkable for the kind of people that he comes in contact with, and the places of entertainment he chooses during his short visit. To begin with, in

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Rotterdam he puts up, not in a real Dutch hotel but ‘in an English house of entertainment,’ the company which he is introduced to consists in the main of Englishmen ‘to the number of twenty or thirty, Englishmen of all ranks and degrees, from the merchant to the perriwigmaker's prentice.’ From Rotterdam he goes to the Hague ‘in the Treckskuyt.’ The very evening of the day of his arrival, if we believe him, he went to the reception of the Prince and Princess ‘without any introduction.’ Next day he saw the Foundery, the Stadhouse, the Spinhuys, Vauxhall and Count Bentinck's gardens, but tells nothing about all these except the names, and the fact that he saw them. On the contrary, when in the evening he goes to what he calls ‘the French comedy,’ he tells us about some dirty and silly pieces, which were represented, and which show the character of the place he went to, and his refined taste in telling all about it in shameless realistic style. From the Hague to Amsterdam he goes in a post-waggon, with an introduction to an English merchant. The theatre and the night-houses are the things he goes there to see. About the latter he tells us that they were called ‘Spuyl, or music-houses, which, by the connivance of the magistrates, are maintained for the recreation of those who might attempt the chastity of creditable women if they were not provided with such conveniences. To one of those night-houses did our traveller repair under the conduct of the English merchant.’ There he ‘made up to a sprightly French girl who sat in seeming expectation of a customer,’ and danced with her to the music of ‘a scurvy organ’ until a sailor came in to put up a fight with him about the girl, hardly escaping the chance of being killed. From Amsterdam to Haerlem he goes again with the

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‘skuyt.’ At Haerlem he only takes dinner and then departs for Leyden, ‘where they met with some English students who treated them with great hospitality.’ All he tells about that hospitality is that his friend had a heavy dispute. ‘After they had visited the Physic Garden, the University, the Anatomic Hall and every other thing that was recommended to their view, they returned to Rotterdam and held a consultation upon the method of transporting themselves to England.’ As far as Leyden is concerned, he speaks not another word about anything except the dispute in the circle of his own friends. When I read these experiences on a trip through Holland of Peregrine Pickle, alias Tobias Smollett, it reminds me of a little joke I had one time with one of my English friends in the Primrose Club at London. Sitting around a comfortable English fireplace, and talking about Holland, one of my younger friends, trying to tease me, said to me, ‘Do you really wear wooden shoes when you live in Holland?’ I said, ‘Why, don't you know what the Dutch people make those wooden shoes for?’ He said, ‘No, I don't.’ ‘Well,’ I said to him, ‘they make those wooden shoes for all the young Englishmen of good standing who visit Holland, and do nothing there but just walk in the mud.’ Smollett certainly was one of them, according to his own narrative. Last summer, being in Brussels for a few days, just before the war started, I observed unwillingly a couple of the same kind of young English gentlemen. I had been looking through picture galleries, and through a large bookstore of antique and modern books for a whole day. A young, clever and well-educated antiquarian had been kind enough to accompany me, and help me to buy some things I liked, and consequently I invited him for dinner to my hotel. After

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 359 dinner we were sitting in front of the Grand Hotel, smoking our cigars and drinking our demi-tasse. Our conversation was in French, simply because my friend spoke neither Dutch nor English. After a while two young Englishmen, well-dressed, took seats just in back of us, and hearing some of our French talk, they apparently concluded that nobody understood their English, and began to talk very frankly to each other about their experiences of the night before. ‘If I had thought,’ said one of them, ‘that you cared so much for that girl, I might just as well have taken the other one.’ ‘Why,’ said the other one, ‘let us forget all about it; this is a pleasure trip, let us have another drink.’ Just in the style of Smollett! They, too, needed some wooden shoes. And yet, this muddy realistic style of Smollett has been able to start a whole school of realistic novels, and in our own time some of the most famous novelists go much deeper even through the mud than Smollett did. There must be some attractive side, some idealism in the very realistic style, and there is - there is a kind of straightness, a heroism, a defiance of all hypocrisy, heroic especially when carried through with a brazen face and without any shame whatever. Not to be a hypocrite, to love the truth, to stand like a man, knowing and willing what he is doing, whatever it may be, this has some charming attraction, and finds always a beautiful black background in the despicable hypocrisy to be found to some degree everywhere. It takes the form of a war against a world of lies, in an endeavor to be truthful and straight. But its weak side is apparent. Smollett shows it in describing his trip through Holland. He sees nothing but mud, he walks always in it, his eyes are hardly for a moment on anything else. Compared with a vile hireling of pub-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 360 lic opinion like Dryden, Smollett is a man, a character, confessing that he is walking in the mud and standing for it without shame or repentance, and with a stubborn heroic smile, a forerunner of Dickens and even of Byron, although this sublime name might be abused in this connection. But the result, at least in this case, for Smollett and for what we might expect from a description of a journey through the Netherlands, is very poor indeed. How different from what Goldsmith in his short poem gives! How different also from the impressions which Southey got during his visit in Holland! (1774-1843), well known as a poet, and famous for his Life of Nelson and his Life of Wesley, spent several weeks in the Netherlands during the year 1825, and he gives his impressions from that trip in several of his letters written from Holland.1 To Henry Taylor he wrote on March 28, 1825: ‘I want to see Holland, which is a place of man's making, country as well as towns. I want monastic books, which it is hopeless to look for in England, and which there is every probability of finding at Brussels, Antwerp, or Leyden. In the course of three or four weeks, going sometimes by trekschuits and sometimes upon wheels, we might see the principal places of the Dutch Netherlands, visit the spot where Sir Philip Sidney fell, talk of the Dousas and Scaliger at Leyden, and obtain such a general notion of the land as would enable us better to understand the history of the Low Country wars.’ On May 2, 1825, he wrote to the same man: ‘You do not expect enough from Holland. It is a marvellous country in itself, in its history, and in the

1 John Dennis, Robert Southey - The story of his life written in his letters. London and New York, 1894, p. 326, v.v.

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Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 361 men and works which it has produced. The very existence of the country is at once a natural and a moral phenomenon. Mounteneer as I am, I expect to feel more in Holland than in . Instead of climbing mountains, we shall have to ascend church-towers. The panorama from that at Harlem is said to be one of the most impressive in the world. Evening is the time for seeing it to the most advantage. ‘I have not yet forgotten the interest which Watson's Histories of Philip II and III excited in me when a school-boy. They are books which I have never looked in since; but I have read largely concerning the Dutch war against the Spanjards, on both sides, and there is no part of Europe which could be so interesting to me as historical ground. Perhaps my persuits may have made me more alive than most men to associations of this kind; but I would go far to see the scene of any event which has made my heart throb with a generous emotion, or the grave of any one whom I desire to meet in another state of existence.’ ‘To Holland,’ says Dennis, ‘Southey went accordingly, and at Leyden he was laid up with a bad foot and for three weeks was hospitably entertained by the poet Bilderdÿk and his poet wife, who, as we have seen, had translated Roderick.’1 William Bilderdÿk (1756-1831) was one of the greatest poets, scholars, historians, Holland ever produced; the four greatest men in Dutch literature are Jacob van Maerland (1235-1295), Joost van den Vondel (1587-1678), Jacob Cats (1577-1660), and Willem Bilderdÿk. During the French Revolution, Bilderdÿk was banished from his own country, and lived for some time

1 Dennis, Robert Southey, p. 328.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 362 in England, where he got acquainted with Southey. Nowhere could Southey have found a man better acquainted with Holland and its history, and in the letters of Southey one can feel on almost every page the influence of Bilderdÿk. The most popular edition of Bilderdÿk's poetical works is that in fifteen volumes, with an addition of three volumes of verses written by Mrs. Bilderdÿk. Besides that, he wrote a History of the Netherlands, published after his death, in thirteen volumes. Being at Leyden with Mr. and Mrs. Bilderdÿk, Southey wrote to his wife on June 30, 1825: ‘You will now expect to hear something of the establishment into which I have been thus - unluckily shall I say, or luckily? - introduced. The house is a good one, in a cheerful street, with a row of trees and a canal in front - large, and with everything good and comfortable about it. The only child, Lodewÿk Willem, is at home, Mr. Bilderdÿk being as little fond of schools as I am. The boy has a peculiar and to me an interesting countenance. He is evidently of a weak constitution; his dress neat but formal, and his behaviour towards me amusing from his extreme politeness, and the evident pleasure with which he receives any attempt on my part to address him, or any notice that I take of him at table. A young vrouw waits at table. I wish you could see her, for she is a much odder figure than Maria Rosa (‘a Portuguese servant,’ says Dennis) appeared on her first introduction, only not so cheerful a one. Her dress is black and white, perfectly neat and not more graceful than a Beguine's. The cap, which is very little, and has a small front not projecting farther than the green shade which I wear sometimes for my eyes, comes down to the roots of her hair, which is

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 363 all combed back on the forehead; and she is as white and wan in complexion as her cap; slender and not ill-made; and were it not for this utter paleness, she would be rather handsome. Another vrouw, who appears more rarely, is not in such plain dress, but is quite as odd in her way. Nothing can be more amusing than Mr. Bilderdÿk's conversation. Dr. Bell is not more full of life, spirits and enthusiasm; I am reminded of him every minute. He seems delighted to have a guest who can understand, and will listen to him; and he is not a little pleased at discerning how many points of resemblance there are between us. For he is as laborious as I have been; has written upon as many subjects; is just as much abused by the Liberals in his country as I am in mine, and does contempt them as heartily and as merrily as I do. I am growing intimate with Mrs. Bilderdÿk, about whom her husband, in the overflowing of his spirits, tells me everything. He is very fond of her, and very proud of her, as well he may be, and on her part she is as proud of him.’ Again Southey writes to his wife from Leyden, July 7, 1825: ‘This is our manner of life: At eight in the morning Lodewÿck knocks at my door. My movements in dressing are as regular as clock work, and when I enter the adjoining room breakfast is ready on a sofa-table, which is placed for my convenience close to the sofa. There I take my place, seated on one cushion, and with my leg raised on another. The sofa is covered with black plush. The family take coffee, but I have a jug of boiled milk. Two sorts of cheese are on the table, one of which is very strong, and highly flavored with cummin and cloves; this is called Leyden cheese, and is eaten at breakfast laid in thin slices on bread and butter. The

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 364 bread is soft, in rolls, which have rather skin than crust; the butter very rich, but so soft that it is brought in a pot to table, like potted meat. Before we begin Mr. B. takes off a little gray cap, and a silent grace is said, not longer than it ought to be; when it is over, he generally takes his wife's hand. They sit side by side opposite me; Lodewÿck at the end of the table. About ten o'clock Mr. Dousa comes and dresses my foot, which is swathed in one of my silk handkerchiefs. I bind a second round the bottom of the pantalon, and if the weather be cold, I put on a third; so that the leg has not merely a decent but rather a splendid appearance. After breakfast and tea, Mrs. B. washes up the china herself at the table. Part of the morning Mr. B. sits with me. During the rest I read Dutch, or, as at present, retire into my bedroom and write. Henry Taylor calls in the morning, and is always pressed to dine, which he does twice or thrice in the week. We dine at half past two or three, and the dinners, to my great pleasure, are altogether Dutch. You know I am a valiant eater, and having retained my appetite as well as my spirits during this confinement, I eat everything which is put before me. The dinner lasts very long - strawberries and cherries always follow. After coffee, they leave me to an hour's nap. Tea follows. Supper at half past nine, when Mr. B. takes milk, and I a little cold meat with pickles, or the gravy of the meat preserved in a form like jelly, and at half past ten I go to bed. My host's conversation is amusing beyond anything I ever heard. I cannot hope to describe it so as to make you conceive it. The matter is always so interesting, that it would alone suffice to keep one's attention on the alert; his manner is beyond expression animated, and his language the most extraordinary

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 365 that can be imagined. Even my French cannot be half so odd. It is English pronounced like Dutch and with such a mixture of other languages, that it is an even chance whether the next word that comes be French, Latin or Dutch, or one of either tongues shaped into an English form. Sometimes the oddest imaginable expressions occur. When he would say: ‘I was pleased,’ he says: ‘I was very pleasant;’ and instead of saying that a poor woman was wounded, with whom he was overturned in a stage-coach in England, he said she was severely blessed. Withal, whatever he says is so full of information, vivacity, and character, and there is such a thorough good nature, kindness and frankness about him, that I never felt myself more interested in any man's company. The profits of literature here are miserably small. In that respect I am in relation to them what Sir Walter Scott is in relation to me. I can never sufficiently show my sense of the kindness which I am experiencing here. Think what a difference it is to be confined in a hotel, with all the discomforts, or to be in such a family as this, who show by every word and every action that they are truly pleased in having me under their roof.’ On the 16th of July, Southey wrote from Amsterdam a letter to his daughter, Miss Katherine Southey, at his home at Keswick, in which he says: ‘Thursday I settled my business as to booksellers - Oh, joy! when that chest of glorious folios shall arrive at Keswick - the pleasure of unpacking, of arranging them on the new shelves that must be provided, and the whole year's repast after supper which they will afford!’ ‘Yesterday our kind friends (Mr. and Mrs. Bilderdÿk) accompanied us a little way in the trekschuit

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 366 on our departure, and we parted with much regret on both sides. If Mr. Bilderdÿk can muster spirits for the undertaking, they will come and pass a summer with me, - which of all things in the world would give me most pleasure, for never did I meet with more true kindness than they have shown me, or with two persons who have in so many essential respects so entirely pleased me. Lodewÿk, too, is a very engaging boy, and attached himself greatly to me; he is the only survivor of eight children, whom Mr. Bilderdÿk has had by his present wife, and of seven by the first! I can truly say that, unpleasant as the circumstance was which brought me under their roof, no part of my life ever seemed to pass away more rapidly or more pleasantly.’ So far I quote from the letters of Southey. I suppose these quotations to be sufficient to prove how much Southey was under the influence of Bilderdÿk. And that meant something, as everybody who knows Bilderdÿk can easily understand. Bilderdÿk was the greatest Dutch scholar, poet and historian of his time, and Southey was not the only man, indeed, that came under the irresistible charm of his intimate friendship, and unmatched conversation. A considerable circle of the very highest class of students in the University of Leyden, and among them Groen van Prinsterer, who was destined to be the archivist of the House of Orange, and the greatest historian Holland ever had, and who became the leader of the old Orange-party, which revived under his leadership, flocked to the hospitable home of Bilderdÿk for years to listen to his private lectures on Dutch history, and to enjoy his conversation. Southey uses strong language when he says that ‘nothing can be more amusing than Bilderdÿk's conversation,’ that

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‘his conversation is amusing beyond anything I ever heard,’ and ‘I never felt myself more interested in any man's company,’ but we are not surprised at it at all. Southey was not the Only one who spoke that way about Bilderdÿk. Southey's sympathy for the Dutch poet, Jacob Cats (1577-1660), an author much beloved by Bilderdÿk, is without question due to Bilderdÿk. On February 18, 1825, Southey in a letter to Grosvenor Belford says: ‘Do you remember my buying a Dutch grammar in the “cool May” of 1799, and how we were amused at Brinton with the Dutch grammarian who pities himself and loved his good and rich brother? That grammar1 is in use now; and Cuthbert and I have begun upon Jacob Cats; who in spite of his name, and of the ill-looking and not-much-better-sounding language in which he wrote, I verily believe to have been the most useful poet that any country ever produced. In Bilderdÿk's youth, Jacob Cats was to be found in every respectable house throughout Holland, lying beside the hall Bible. One of his longer poems, which describes the course of female life, and female duties, from childhood to the grave, was in such estimation, that an ornamented edition of it was printed solely for bridal presents. He is, in the best sense of the word, a domestic poet; intelligible to the humblest of his readers, while the dexterity and felicity of his diction make him the admiration of those who are but able to appreciate the merits of his style. And for useful practical morals, maxims for every-day life, lessons that find their way through the understanding to the heart, and fix themselves there, I know of no poet who can be compared to him. Mi Cats inter omnes. Cedite Romani Scriptores, cedite Graii!’

1 As early as the year 1700 there were written Dutch grammars in English, for instance one by Sewel, a copy of which is in my library.

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To these words of Southey we may add that Jacob Cats was not at all unknown in England; Sir Joshua Reynolds, the famous English painter, in his early youth was delighted in looking at the beautiful engravings in the works of ‘Father Cats’ which may have been the first inspiration for the great artist to devote his life to painting. But there was still another Englishman of good literary ability, who came largely under the influence of Holland, who lived at Leyden with Southey and even came in close contact with Bilderdÿk. It was Sir Henry Taylor (1800-1886), the author of ‘Philip van Artevelde,’ for many years an officer of the English government in the Colonial Department, a friend of Wordsworth and Southey, to whose circle in literature he belongs. In 1823 he made the acquaintance of Southey, which soon afterwards ripened into a warm friendship, and in the year 1825 we find the two friends together in the Netherlands, more especially at Leyden and at the home of Willem Bilderdÿk. Southey, in his letter of July 7, 1825, written at Mr. Bilderdÿk's home, to Mrs. Southey, says: ‘Henry Taylor calls in the morning, and is always pressed to dine, which he does twice or thrice a week.’ During the next year, 1826, ‘Southey paid another short visit to Holland, accompanied by his friends, Henry Taylor and Mr. Rickman.’1 Probably from Bilderdÿk, and through Bilderdÿk from Southey, he got the inspiration for Dutch history, and more especially for his great theme of Philip van Artevelde, as Bilderdÿk was the greatest Dutch historian of his time, and a man of great attraction in his conversation, as we learn from Southey's letters, quoted above. Six years, from

1 Dennis. Robert Southey, p. 341.

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1828-1834, Henry Taylor is said to have spent in preparing his great play, in two parts, of Philip van Artevelde. Taylor wrote four more plays, Commenus, Edwin the Fair, A Sicilian Summer, and St. Clement's Eve, but it is the two-fold play of Philip van Artevelde that gave Taylor a permanent place in English literature. It certainly was a great theme, that attracted Taylor the more because he saw in the life of his hero the ideas and feelings, and last, not least, the intimate experiences of his own life. The names of Jacob van Artevelde, who was murdered in 1345, and that of his son Philip, who was killed in battle in 1382, stand for a whole epoch in the history and development of Democracy, and are for their own time the representatives of the same great movement in history, at the head of which we find a William the Silent in the Netherlands, a Johannes Althusius at Embden in East-Triesland, a Wycliff and a Cromwell in England, a George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in America. A great movement, in its character social as well as religious and political, a gigantic struggle of the masses of the people against feudalism and aristocracy, in church, in state, and in society; a movement for equality of opportunity, beginning with the crusades, in which many of the nobles were killed, and the free men of the villages (villanei, or villains) got an opportunity to leave their poor homes around the castles of the nobles, to find refuge in the rapidly rising cities; growing more and more strong in the cities, and the leagues of the cities in Flanders and in the Hansa; developing still more under the inspiring religious revival of the Reformation, when the Northern Netherlands got the leadership; leading the way in England to the Commonwealth of Cromwell, until at last it found its final

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 370 triumph in the great American Democracy of Washington and Lincoln. This great movement of Democracy had its headquarters during the fourteenth century in the cities of Flanders, Ghent, Bruges, Ypres and in other cities of the Southern Netherlands, and it is during that period that we find the names of the Van Arteveldes written in large characters on the pages of the World's History. It was in the first part of the hundred years' war between England and France (1337-1454). Both the king of France and the king of England tried to get the powerful alliance of Flanders. The count of Flanders was the vassal of the king of France, and chose in the main the side of that country, but the cities of Flanders, suffering under the feudal tyranny of the count and his nobles, found in Edward III (1327-1377), king of England, their ally, for the double reason that they got the wool for their looms from England, in which country they found a great market for their trade, and that they were fighting for their liberties against the Count and his suzerain, the king of France. It was the organizing power of Jacob van Artevelde, who first united the guilds of his city Ghent, then brought about a union of the cities of Flanders, and finally made that famous alliance in the name of nearly all Flanders with Edward the Third in the year 1339, an alliance which soon afterwards was joined by the Count of Holland. It was the first great accomplishment of Democracy in modern times. Battles were fought, victories gained, and Artevelde himself after a few years was murdered in 1345 but his great work is a milestone in the history of Democracy forever. Forty years later, his son, Philip van Artevelde, appears in the midst of the continuous struggle on the stage of the world's history. Born about the year

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1340, Philip was only a boy of five years when his father was murdered, and although little is known about it, it seems that the intimate friendship of King Edward III gave a safe refuge to the rest of the family in England for some time. Probably in England Philip came under the influence of the Lollards, as the followers of John Wicliff were called, at least he is said to have lived for a long time the ascetic life of the Lollards;1 until the time came in 1380 that the Democracy in Flanders, in a time of utmost distress, looked for another energetic leader in its struggle against the Count and his nobility. With Philip van Artevelde as their leader, the city of Ghent rose to arms, and in a few days stormed the residence of the Count, the city of Bruges, at the same time the centre of the nobles. The Count Louis de Male hardly escaped with his life, and a great number of the nobles and aristocrats were slain in a furious battle. The Count fled to France to ask for help from the King of that country, and Artevelde, in the footsteps of his father, tried to make an alliance with England. This catastrophe in Flanders was felt through all western Europe, and at the same time we find the uprisings of democracy in the ‘Jacquerie’ at Paris, at Amiens, at Rouen and other places in France, as well as the Wat Tyler insurrection in England.2 But while the French King came to the rescue of his Count, the English King stayed behind, and in 1382 Van Artevelde and his citizens were defeated in the terrible battle of Roozebeke, in which 26,000 Flamings were killed, and the corpse of Van Artevelde remained upon the battlefield.

1 H. Pirenne, Histoire de Belguique, II, p. 208. 2 ‘Les Gantois fomentèrent les insurrections françaises de Ferrier-Mars 1382’ and ‘ceux de Gant étaient allés de ceux de Rouen.’ Pirenne, p. 211.

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This is the short, heroic and tragic story of the leadership of Philip van Artevelde, which inspired Henry Taylor, and which he worked out in detail, interwoven with a characteristic love story, in his tragedy in two parts called Philip van Artevelde. Writing about this two-fold play, Aubrey de Vere says: ‘Mr. Taylor's poetry is pre-eminently that of action, as Lord Byron's is that of passion; or rather, it includes action as well as passion, thus corresponding with Milton's definition of tragic poetry as “high actions and high passions best describing.” It is this peculiarity which has made him succeed in drama which most of our modern poets have attempted, but almost all unsuccessfully.’1 In his autobiography, Taylor tells us: ‘Miss Bremer, the Swedish novelist, told me that it (viz., the Philip van Artevelde) had been translated into Swedish and brought on the stage with great success at Stockholm.’2 Philip van Artevelde was the most successful thing in Taylors life. ‘The sale was rapid and as the edition had numbered only 500 copies, another had to be put in preparation without delay. Lansdowne House and Holland House, then the great receiving houses of London society, opened their gates wide. In that society I found that I was going by the name of my hero; and one lady, more fashionable than well-informed, sent me an invitation addressed to ‘Philip van Artevelde, Esq.’3 Concerning the way in which Taylor received his first suggestion to choose this subject, he tells us: ‘In the spring of 1828, I was meditating another drama;

1 Aubrey de Vere, Essays chiefly on poetry, p. 267. 2 Henry Taylor, Autobiography, Vol. II, p. 32. 3 Autobiography, I, p. 196.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 373 and Southey, after dissuading me from founding one upon the story of Patkul, suggested that of Philip van Artevelde, which I at once adopted.’1 And Southey undoubtedly got his inspiration on this subject from Bilderdÿk, who was most enthusiastic about the earlier history of the Netherlands.

1 Autobiography, I, p. 109.

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Chapter XXXVIII Holland's Glory of the Past Remains Inspiring. Motley, Macaulay, Walter Scott, Washington Irving, and Paulding, Longfellow, Charles Reade and Robert Louis Stevenson. English Translations of Dutch Works. Inspiration from Dutch Art. Walter Cranston Larnet's Novel - Rembrandt.

After a period of decline like that of the eighteenth century, the downfall of the Dutch Republic during the French Revolution followed rapidly. When the whirlwind of revolutionary enthusiasm swept over the nations of Western Europe, it could not be expected that a nation whose strength was neither in the vastness of its area, nor in the many millions of its inhabitants, should remain intact. And when that terrible storm had passed by, and the battle of Waterloo was fought, Holland reappeared among independent nations, but to start a new history; a history entirely different from that of the great Dutch Republic; a history more in accordance with the natural limits of the country and the number of its inhabitants. Nevertheless, by its central location between England, France and Germany, Holland, although one of the minor states, will always remain a remarkable spot on the globe, and as long as the balance of the great powers leaves to her the possessions of her vast colonies, it will count as one of the commercial nations of greater importance. Holland

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 375 came into the position in which Greece has been for centuries, and into which Italy at last has come, and a comparison with Greece and Italy illustrates the present situation of Holland. When a traveler visits Greece, he may enjoy the life and the pleasures of the present Greek people, but his main purpose is to see the places where the warriors of Homer lived, where Apelles and Phidias displayed their art, where Plato and Aristoteles were teaching. Whoever goes to Italy may admire the Italian art of later centuries, may enjoy the beauty of the Italian climate, but before everything else, his thoughts are on ancient Rome, on the empire of the Caesars, his longings are to see the sacred places where the first Christians were persecuted and murdered, in the Catacombs and in the Coliseum, to stand on the forum Romanum, to walk through the palace of the Palatine, to look down from the Tarpeian rock, to ride along the via Appia, to stand quietly in many places and recall all the greatness and glory that was one time and now is no more. And here in the comparison with Italy we find the hope for Holland's present condition and its future. Italy never again has played the part of a world-empire, never has regained its glorious days of ancient Rome, but Italy, after having been reduced to more natural and fitting conditions, and after its great task in history has passed long ago, has nevertheless developed a wonderful splendor in art and in literature, in science and in every other respect. So, when anybody visits Holland, if he is not an ‘innocent abroad,’ he will look first for Holland's glory of the past, he may see first the many places, sacred in history, remarkable as any places on the face of the earth; places connected with tragedies, more tragic than any history ever saw; places of martyrdom and

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 376 heroism for the liberties now enjoyed in the most remote countries, and we can only pity those poor tourists whose entire interest consists in seeing the wooden shoes of some poor fisher people, because they do not see that they themselves in a spiritual sense are just as poor as those people begging at the side of the sea. But besides all those glorious remainders of the past, in sacred places and in art, there is still a modern civilization in Holland, a national energy, which is illustrated by the fact that, in proportion, the scholars and scientists of Holland in our days get more Nobel prizes than those of any country in the world, and that the modern school of Dutch art, the school of Josef Israels and Maris, Mesdag and Mauve can stand comparison with any school in the world. Only in the field of language and literature we must not expect much from Holland, because there competition is on too unequal terms. Art and science speak in a world-language, but literature is largely confined to a certain language. The Dutch language is spoken only by comparatively a few, while, for instance, English is the language of the English Empire, and of the United States. Consequently a literary work written in Dutch becomes important for the world at large only in translation, while in the original it is limited to that comparatively very small part of the civilized world where the Dutch language is spoken. But what will remain inspiring for the whole world, and for the literary artists of all nations, is the grand history of the Dutch republic, with its deeds of great heroism and martyrdom, of stubborn steadfastness in standing for freedom and independence, deeds written in the language of the human heart, as

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 377 well as in the books of the world's history. Names like those of Motley and Macaulay may prove at once how far this is true; two men whose volumes take their place of honor in the literature of England and America, and whose inspiration holds immediate contact with the history of Holland. As Southey and Henry Taylor came into personal contact with Bilderdÿk, so Motley and Macaulay, half a century later, made the acquaintance of the great pupil of Bilderdÿk, the archivist of the House of Orange and great historian, G. Groen van Prinsterer. (1814-1877), born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, after having finished his studies at Harvard, and after having made a trip through Europe, became, in 1841, secretary of the Ambassador of the United States at St. Petersburg; lived in the United States from 1842-1851; from 1851 until 1856 at Berlin, Dresden and Brussels; was Ambassador at Vienna 1861-1868, and after 1870 at London, until he died in England, in Kingston Russel House, near Dorchester (Dorsetshire), in 1877. Motley began his literary career in 1839 by writing a novel, Morton's Hope, and ten years later he published another novel called Merry Mount. After that he gave himself, as much as his diplomatic career allowed him time for it, entirely to historical researches, and it was the history of the Netherlands that became the great source of inspiration of his life. In 1856 Motley published his Rise of the Dutch Republic, in three volumes; after that he wrote the History of the United Netherlands, in four volumes 1860-1868; and finally in 1874 his Life and Death of John of Barnevelt, in two volumes. The first of these works brought the name of Motley at once into fame all over the world, and not without reason. It is

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 378 splendid in every respect. The second work, his History of the Netherlands, is not as trustworthy and contains many mistakes. His last work, the Life and Death of Olden Barnevelt, is another masterpiece of literary merit, but, as a work of history, it is a complete failure, because on the main question he goes absolutely wrong. The best historians of the most different parties, like the liberal Robert Fruin, and the conservative Groen van Prinsterer, agree in this point against Motley. I am sorry that, according to these historians, we have to go still further. Motley was not only wrong, but he was so much prejudiced that he took no notice of the very best documents which were put at his disposal from the archives of the House of Orange. The main idea of Motley, in the great question between Prince Maurits and Olden Barnevelt, was, that Prince Maurits was ambitious, that he tried to get the sovereignty instead of being Stadholder, that Olden Barnevelt refused in that point his assistance, and that therefore the Prince hated Olden Barnevelt. This presumption, once accepted, dominated the whole work of Motley, and he could not change this idea, he could not admit that he was wrong, without changing his whole work, and its pervading spirit from start to finish. Groen van Prinsterer published, in the meantime, the secret correspondence between Prince Maurits and his cousin, Willem Lodewÿk, Stadholder of Friesland, who stood side by side with the Prince against Olden Barnevelt. In those letters, during the most critical years of the conflict, Prince Maurits writes his intimate thoughts and feelings to a cousin, whom he perfectly trusts, and who stands with him. Those secret letters have to decide the question of Maurits' intentions, and they do. But they decided against Motley, and Motley knew it before his book was published, but he refused

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 379 to change the whole work, and stuck to his story. How to explain prejudices like these? How Motley got the prejudices can easily be explained, but why he stuck to them nobody can explain without touching the character of Motley as an honest and sincere historian. Motley was a Unitarian, and had a strong feeling of antipathy against the Calvinistic party, of which Prince Maurits was the head. Motley, when he lived at the Hague for some time in a house on the Kneuterdÿk, was a great friend of Queen Sophia, at that time living separately from her royal husband, King William III, whom she hated and despised. A life-size portrait of Motley is still hanging in the Palace in the woods near the Hague, where Queen Sophia lived. No princess ever did so much harm to the House of Orange as she did. She was better suited to be the editor of a magazine or the teacher of a high school than to be the wife of a king like William III. This wrong conception of her life's task was so terrible in its consequences that really the whole royal family was destroyed, and not before the queen died, and another and better Princess, viz., Queen Emma, came in her place, was the sensitive character of William III, by her soft and wise hand, led in the right way. That Motley, starting with a prejudiced mind, and favored with the friendship of a queen, who hated the House of Orange, and whose literary abilities were acknowledged, but who neglected the great task of her life, hardly could change his mind, is easily understood. And yet that he, knowing better, as an honest man, preserved and gave his book to the world as he did, looks psychologically like the fall of an angel. After the publishing of Motley's book, Groen van Prinsterer told Motley personally that he was obliged to write against him, and

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 380 he published his ‘Maurice et Barnevelt,’ a book of about 600 pages, written in French in order that the whole world should be able to read it. In the family archives of Mr. Groen van Prinsterer, now in the State-Archives at the Hague, are only six letters of Motley written to Groen, and only three copies of letters written by Groen to Motley. I take here, finally, the opportunity of publishing two letters of Motley, which came into my possession by purchase at the Antiquariat of Van Stockum at the Hague. They may be valuable for the biographer of Motley, and once printed they cannot be lost any more to historical research. The paper of the first letter is stamped - 31 Hertford street, May Fair, and dated ‘13 July, '60.’

Dear Sir: - Since sending my letter of yesterday, I have cut the leaves of the last portion of the Olden Barneveld papers received. I find that the instructions to Leicester sent by me to Mr. van Deventer, have already been printed by you. It is unnecessary therefore to trouble that gentleman or yourself with any more questions. I remain Yours truly, J.L. MOTLEY. P.S. - Pray do not forget the missing pages, 128-145.

The other letter is written at the Hague to Professor P.G. Frederiks:

6 neuterdÿk, The Hague, 8 April, '72. Dear Sir: - Pray accept my best thanks for your kind letter of 4th inst., together with the ‘Feestnummer’ of the ‘Zutphensche Courant,’ which I have read with much interest. I have a very agreeable remembrance of my visit to

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Zutphen fourteen years ago and of the interesting and instructive conversation of the gentleman, Mr. Tadema, who was so good as to show me all that was interesting there.1 I read with interest what you tell me of the papers in the Wÿnhuistoren. I thank you sincerely for your friendly intentions in my behalf as well as for the indulgent manner in which you are pleased to speak of my labors to illustrate the history of your noble country and of the honor recently done me by the time-honored University of Leyden. I am, dear sir, Very respectfully and truly yours, J.L. MOTLEY. Professor P.G. Frederiks.

Macaulay, as well as Motley, was personally acquainted with the Dutch historian, Groen van Prinsterer, and without any painful difference of opinion such as overshadowed the friendship of Groen and Motley. Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), born at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire; died at Holly Lodge, Campden Hill, and was given a resting place in the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. Among the tombs of Johnson and Garrick, Handel and Goldsmith, and at the feet of the statue of Addison, lies the tombstone of the man who spent the best part of his life in writing the story of William III, Prince of Orange and King of England, in a monumental work that bears the name of History of England. Four of the five volumes are devoted to the time of William and Mary, and the great hero of the work, the hero of Macaulay's life was the illustrious Prince of Orange. Several times Macaulay travelled on the

1 Motley alludes here of course to the place where Philip Sidney lost his life.

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European Continent, and at least in 1844 he made a journey through Holland, hut I have not been able to find out how far he visited the Netherlands during his later trips. That he was well acquainted with Groen van Prinsterer is apparent from the thirty-one letters of Macaulay, which are in the family-archives of Groen, now in the State-Archives at the Hague, and that he knew the Dutch language may be proved by the following letter, the original of which is in my possession.

London, August 14, 1855. Sir - I beg you to accept my thanks for the volumes which you have had the kindness to send me. The history of your province is peculiarly interesting to an Englishman. For you and we are, as the resemblance of our language proves, very near akin. I promise myself great pleasure and profit from the perusal of your work. But I am sorry to say that it will be a matter of time for, though I read Dutch, I read it with difficulty, and I find the style of your modern writers very different from that of your diplomatists of the seventeenth century, with whose dispatches I am better acquainted than with any other part of your literature. With repeated thanks for the honor which you have done me, I beg you to believe me, Sir, Your most faithful servant, T.B. MACAULAY.

An admiration for the great hero of his history Macaulay seems to have gained at a very early time of his life, when during the years 1818-1824 he was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge. During the year 1821, the same year in which the great Dutch historian, Groen van Prinsterer, got his double doctor's degree in law and in philosophy at Leyden, a certain Mr. Greaves of Fulbourn had provided a

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 383 reward of ten pounds for the junior bachelor of Trinity College, who wrote the best essay on ‘the conduct and character of William the Third.’ ‘It is more than probable,’ says Trevelyan, the biographer of Macaulay, ‘that to this old Cambridgeshire Whig was due the first idea of that “History” in whose pages William of Orange stands as the central figure.’ The essay by which the student Macaulay won the prize is still in existence, and it is interesting how, at that time, he already outlines the characters of the two great antagonists, Louis XIV and William III. Mr. Trevelyan gives us two passages. He thus describes William's life-long enemy and rival, whose name he already spells after his own fashion: ‘Lewis was not a great general. He was not a great legislator. But he was, in one sense of the word, a great king. He was a perfect master of all the mysteries of the science of royalty - of all the arts which at once extend power and conciliate popularity - which most advantageously display the merits, or most dexterously conceal the deficiencies of a sovereign. He was surrounded by great men, by victorious commanders, by sagacious statesmen. Yet, while he availed himself to the utmost of their services, he never incurred any danger from their rivalry. He was a talisman which extorted the obedience of the proudest and mightiest spirits. The haughty and turbulent warriors whose contests had agitated France during his minority yielded to the irresistible spell, and, like the gigantic slaves of the ring and lamp of Aladdin, labored to decorate and aggrandize a master whom they could have crushed. With incomparable address he appropriated to himself the glory of campaigns which had been planned and counsels which

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 384 had been suggested by others. The arms of Turenne were the terror of Europe. The policy of Colbert was the strength of France. But in their foreign successes and their internal prosperity the people saw only the greatness and wisdom of Lewis.’ His favored hero, William III, the young Macaulay, describes as follows: ‘To have been a sovereign, yet the champion of liberty; a revolutionary leader, yet the supporter of social order, is the peculiar glory of William. He knew where to pause. He outraged no national prejudice. He abolished no ancient form. He altered no venerable name. He saw that the existing institutions possessed the greatest capabilities of excellence, and that stronger sanctions and clearer definitions were alone required to make the practice of the British constitution as admirable as the theory. Thus he imparted to innovation the dignity and stability of antiquity. He transferred to a happier order of things the associations which had attached the people to their former Government. As the Roman warrior, before he assaulted Veii, invoked its guardian gods to leave the walls, and to accept the worship and patronize the cause of the besiegers, this great prince, in attacking a system of oppression, summoned to his aid the venerable principles and deeply-seated feelings to which that system was indebted for protection.’ This admiration that had inspired the student, remained with him during his whole life; the grand, inspired style of this essay, developed into the most splendid art of history-writing, and the first success of the youth was a prophecy of the glory with which the whole world was going to crown his head. Since Macaulay's bones went to their resting place in Westminster Abbey, his name and the name of William III of Orange are forever connected.

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The influence of Holland on Walter Scott (1771-1832) attracted at first my attention when I read the footnote on Page 244 of Charles H. Herford's Studies in the literary relations of England and Germany in the sixteenth century, where the author says: ‘The chapter on Diversoria in Erasmus' Colloquia, - a chapter from which Scott drew nearly every detail of the tavern described in Anne of Geierstein.’ I found that the chapter in Anne of Geierstein mentioned by Mr. Herford is Chapter Nineteen, and after comparing it with the chapter of Erasmus' Colloquia entitled Diversoria, I saw that Mr. Herford was right. Walter Scott mentions his source only in so far as in the beginning of that chapter he says: ‘The social spirit peculiar to the French nation had already introduced into the inns of that country the gay and cheerful character of welcome upon which Erasmus, at a later period, dwells with strong emphasis, as a contrast to the saturnine and sullen reception which strangers were apt to meet with in a German caravansera.’ In reading this statement at the beginning, the reader certainly could not expect that every detail of the chapter is taken from Erasmus, and Walter Scott certainly is not far from putting a literary description of value over his own name for which the honor belongs entirely to Erasmus, which, according to Erasmus himself, is one of the greatest crimes a literary man can commit. In this respect the moral standard of honesty in the days of Erasmus seems to be considerably higher than in the days of Walter Scott, and in our own. In another novel of Walter Scott, entitled , the descriptions of conditions in the fifteenth century are drawn from the history of the Southern Netherlands, the city of Liege being one

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 386 of the central places of this romance. But Walter Scott was not the right man to describe the rise of Democracy; his enthusiasm is aroused by the chivalry of the feudal knights, and the freedom and the rights of the masses of the citizens does not inspire him any more than did Erasmus' standard of honesty in respecting the rights of literary men concerning the production of their own genius. In this respect Walter Scott perfectly harmonizes with his intimate friend Washington Irving (1783-1859), the author of the History of New York by Diedrich Knickerbocker and the Sketchbook. In both these books Irving writes about the first Dutch settlers of New York State. His style is splendid and his continuous humor attractive, but his stories are too often accepted at least in part in many books on American history as truthful to history. For this reason, it was quite natural that the Dutch people took offense at Irving's ridicule of their ancestors. The greatest humor of this story is, however, that in the very pages of his Sketchbook, and in the most famous of his stories; viz., the story of Rip Van Winkle, in which he brings to ridicule the Dutch people, he was purloining the whole attractive tale from a son of that same Dutch nation; viz., from Erasmus.1 Washington Irving was a great friend of Walter Scott, and it certainly is not accidental that both these authors purloined from the same Dutch author, Erasmus. Probably through Scott, Washington Irving

1 Two years ago I published eight lectures given in the University of Chicago in a volume entitled: Dutch history, art and literature for Americans. The subjects of these lectures are: (1) Influence of Holland on America; (2) Dutch and American History - A Comparison; (3) William the Silent; (4) Philip II; (5) Rembrandt; (6) The Rise of Amsterdam; (7) Jacob Steendam, the first poet of America, and (8) Washington Irving and the Dutch people of New York. It was in this last lecture with an appendix in six parts that I treated elaborately the question of the Rip Van Winkle story. These lectures are to be found in the libraries of almost all the great universities in America.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 387 got acquainted with the Colloquies, the Praise of Folly and the letters of Erasmus, those inexhaustible sources of humor, and of such detailed collected descriptions as are found in the works of the two friends Scott and Irving. Both had in their character something of that same poor imitation of English aristocracy that made them laugh at the Dutch people, even of the seventeenth century, and that prevented them from the honesty of mentioning the source of some of their best descriptions, giving themselves the literary honor, that belonged to the Dutchman from whom they purloined. Closely connected with Washington Irving was James Kirke Paulding (1778-1860), who tried his literary abilities on two Dutch subjects one entitled The Dutchman's fireside, published in 1841, and the other The book of Saint Nicholaes, a series of stories of the old Dutch settlers, published in 1837. Paulding's inclinations, so far as the Dutch people is concerned, are better than those of his friend Washington Irving; only his capacities are much poorer, and not to be compared with those of Irving. As Vol. 44 of the Standard Literature Series, the Dutchman's Fireside takes a decent place among America's popular literature, a place which it fully deserves. A better inspiration from Dutch history we find in the poem of Longfellow. (1807-1882), who, in his Belfry of Bruges, sings the splendor and glory of the grand history of Flanders:

‘Then most musical and solemn, bringing back the olden times With their strange, unearthly changes, rang the melancholy chimes.’

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 388

Like the psalms from some old cloister, when the nuns sing in the choir; And the great bell tolled among them, like the chanting of a friar I beheld the pageants splendid, that adorned those days of old; Stately dames, like queens attended, knights who bore the Fleece of Gold; Lombard and Venetian merchants with deep laden argosies Ministers from twenty nations; more than royal pomp and ease.’

In these few lines taken from the poem, we taste the author of the Psalm of Life and the Footsteps of Angels, of the Songs of Hiawatha and the Courtship of Miles Standish. In another poem, entitled ‘A Dutch Picture,’ the poet describes Simon Danz, one of those Dutch sea-captains who fought the Spaniards on all seas, and who now having come home for a while, sits at his fireplace, smokes his pipe and makes plans for a new campaign when the winter is over. Charles Reade (1814-1884) wrote several novels, but the only one that made his name famous in literature and is known by everybody is ‘The Cloister and the Hearth,’ published in 1861, in which the author describes the story of the parents of Desiderius Erasmus. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), the great Scotch novelist, in his David Balfour takes Holland as the scene for a great part of his story, and the trip which David and Catriona make from Hellevoetslius to Rotterdam and then to Delft, the Hague and Leyden, is certainly unique among all the trips made

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 389 by foreigners in the Netherlands, and as unique as the circumstances under which David studies law from the textbook of Heinneccius at Leyden. Caroline Atwater Mason in her well known novel A Lily of France gives us a beautiful description of Charlotte Bourbon, the third wife of Prince William the Silent, and makes us familiar with an interesting period in the life of the great Prince of Orange. This novel by a talented American authoress, has been translated from English into Dutch by Miss Henrietta Kuyper, and belongs now, even in Holland, to popular literature.

Literary Inspiration From Dutch Art

In our modern life art takes a considerable place. Love and admiration for things beautiful is so closely connected, and affiliated with praise and worship in religion, that wherever religion is losing ground, it is art that comes to the rescue, to lead the affections and feelings back from materialistic tendencies to the admiration of the sublime and beautiful. The works of Rembrandt are like sermons preached in the language of art, addressing directly our deepest consciousness and our feelings, uplifting our souls to things sublime and unseen; the pictures of Jan Steen and Gerard Dow tell us in a glance, as much as a chapter of Erasmus' Colloquies or Praise of Folly can do in an hour; the masterpieces of Joseph Israels, as his Alone in the World, his Along the Churchyard, and others, are full of tragic poetry, and the lyric songs presented by the best of our modern landscape-painters are impressive and charming beyond description. Books about Dutch art published during the last fifty years in the English language are so numerous that they would fill a little library by themselves. Re-

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 390 productions of the masterworks are seen in almost every home. Many of the descriptions in books about art are of high literary value. That this predominance of art in our modern life should give inspiration to poets and novelists is therefore easily understood. The novel of Walter Cranston Larned, entitled Rembrandt, A Romance of Holland, New York, 1898, may serve as an example of the movement. Besides giving the inspiration for these contributions to English literature during the nineteenth century, many works of Dutch authors have been translated into English during this period. One Dutch author, J.M.W. Schwartz, wrote his novels directly in English under the pseudonym of Maarten Maartens, well known in England and America. He wrote: The Morning of a Love, and other poems, 1885; Julian, a Tragedy, 1886; A Sheaf of Sonnets, 1888; The Son of Joost Avelnigh; An Old Maid's Love; and, God's Fool.1 Mr. De Hoog gives the following list of authors of whom works have been translated from the Dutch: JACOB VAN LENNEP, De pleegroon (The adopted son) and De Roos van Dekema (The Rose Dekama or the Frisian Heiress) 1847. VAN KOETSVELD, De pastorie van Mastland (The manse of Mastland, London, 1860). MRS. BOSBOOM TOUSSAINT, Het Huis Lauernesse, and Majoor Frans. VOSMAER, Amazone. MULTATULI, Max Havelaar. HENDRIK CONSIENCE, Most all of his works, as: The curse of the Village; The happiness of being rich; The Miser; Ricketicketak; The war of Peasants; The Lion of Flanders; Count Hugo of Craenhove; Wooden Clara; and others.

1 Cf. De Hoog, Studien.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 391

PERELAER, Baboe Delima (Baboe Delima or the opium fiend) 1886. WALLIS, Vorstengunst (Royal Favour); and In dagen van strÿd (In troubled times). SCHIMMEL, Kapitein van de Lÿfgarde (The Lifeguardsman) 1896. LOUIS COUPERUS, Elene Vere; and Majesteit, 1894. JOHN H. BEEN, De Geschiedenis van een Hollandschenjongen (The History of a Dutch Boy). FREDERIK VAN EEDEN, Van de Koele meren des doods (Deeps of Deliverance) 1902. JOHANNA VAN WOUDE, Oudhollandsch Binnenhuisje (A Dutch Household) 1902. J.L. TEN KATE, De Schepping (The Creation) 1888. H. TOLLENS, De overwintering op Nova Zembla (The Hollanders in Nova Zembla, An arctic poem 1860 and another in 1888. VONDEL, Lucifer, Translated by Van Noppen, New York. Of course, these translations of Dutch books and the possible influence they may have on English literature, can be easily overestimated, because at present nearly everything that is written in the whole world and that amounts to anything, is translated into English. The whole classic literature of Greece and Rome, the literature of France and Germany, lie before us in English translations, and the few translations from the Dutch are like a glass of water in the ocean of English translations from foreign authors. I agree with De Hoog1 when he says that even the best authors of Dutch literature, like ‘Vondel, Bilderdÿk, Cats, Tollens, Da Costa, van Lennep and Beets do not belong to the world-literature,’ only I would make some exceptions; e.g., for Vondel's Lucifer. Even some novels of the best authors in Germany and in France have been inspired by great events or by great characters in the history of Holland, and

1 De Hoog, Studien, II, p. 239.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 392 have been translated from the German and from the French into English. Some of these novels are among the most popular books in America. As an example from Germany, I think of George Ebers and his novel - The Burgomaster's Wife, for which inspiration is taken from the history of the siege of Leyden in 1574 and the life of burgomaster Adriaen van der Werff. As an example from France, I may take Alexander Dumas' novel The Black Tulip, read in nearly every family in America, the hero of which is Cornelius van Baerle, the friend of Cornelius and John De Witt. This book gives us a glance at the character of Prins William the Third. Yet, the influence of Holland on English literature is not to be looked for in our present age but in the everlasting glory of the past.

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Index of names

Ackersdyk, W.C., 50. Adams, John, 16, 19, 20. Alcuin, 33. Agricola, Rudolph, 207. Akenside, 351. Alciatus, Andreas, 193, 195. Alfridus, 32. Althusius, Johannes, 369. Alva, Duke of, 75, 201, 216. Andrelinus, Faustus, 168. Andrewe, Laurent, 173. Angles, S., 23, 63. Anjou, Duke of, 280. Appelles, 375. Arber, Edward, 205. Aristoteles, 375. Arminius, Jacob, 233, 268, 270. Arthur, King, 145. Arundel, Count, 38. Ashley, Lord, earl of Shalftesbury, 342. Atkinson, 156. Awdeley, 78. Backhuizen van den Brink, 273. Baptists, 261. Barclay, 267. Barends, William, 256. Barham, F. 297. Barker, Ellis, 16. Bartlett, 266. Beaumont, 74. Bede, 144. Been, John H., 391. Beke, Charles F., 255. Belford, Grosvenor, 367. Belte, Johannes, 209. Beza, Theodorus, 193. Bilderdijk, William, 50, 361. Blades, 81. Blok, P., 273. Bodel, Johan, 145. Boerhaave, H., 17. Boisot, Admiral, 202. Bonerus, Edmund, 182. Boaistuau, 275. Bopp, F., 27.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature Bosboom, Toussaint, Mrs., 391. Boswell, 351. Boyle, R., 282. Brandt, G., 36. Bremer, Miss, 372. Brewster, William 266. Bridges, Robert, 63. Broadhead, 16. Brooke, Arthur, 274. Browne, Robert, 265. Brownists, 261. Buelens, Ch., 195. Bullen, A.H., 282. Bunyan, 261. Burnet, Gilbert, 338. Butler, 19. Bynnerman, Henry, 224. Byrne, Thomas, 354. Byron, Lord, 200. Caedmon, 39, 52, 143. Calvin, John, 158, 172, 272. Campbell, Douglas, 13, 20, 75, 266. Carleton, Sir Dudley, 285. Carpenter, W.H., 86. Carus, P., 297. Cats, Jacob, 191, 367. Caxton, William, 149. Celts, 23. Challoner, Rev., 157. Chalmers, George, 213. Charlemagne, 29, 145, 348.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 394

Charles the Bold, 150. Charles the Fifth, Emperor, 64, 74, 214. Charles the First, King, 75, 300. Charles the Second, King, 75. Chaucer, 147. Chrétien de Troyes, 145. Christina, Queen, 34. Churchyard, Thomas, 213. Clarisse, J., 50. Clignett, J.A., 50. Colbert, 384. Congregationalists, 261. Conley, C.H., 297. Conscience, Hendrik, 391. Conway, M.D., 297. Coornhert, D.V., 233, 270. Copland, William, 180. Couperus, Louis, 391. Coverdale, Miles, 187. Cowper, 231. Cromwell, 296, 304, 369. Crusoe, Robinson, 322. Curcellaeus, Stephanus, 270. Curtiss, George L., 271. Dahn, Felix, 31. Danes, 23, 63. Dante, 261. Davie, Diggon, 247. De Backer, M.M.A., 195. De Bellay, 225. De Busbeck, 30. De Casteleyne, Matthys, 277. Defoe, Daniel, 321. De Fonseca, Vincente, 258. De Hoog, 55, 98. De la Gardie, 35. De la Halle, Adam, 145. Denbigh, Earl of, 283. Dennis, John, 360. De Ruyter, Admiral, 311. De Veer, Gerrit 253. De Vere, Aubrey, 372. De Vries, M., 49. De Witt, Johan, 18. Dexter, Henry, 266. Dibdin, Thomas Frognell, 157. Dobson, Austin, 354.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature Dorland Pieter, 161. Douglas, N., 297. Douza, Janus, 196. Dow, Gerard, 389. Drummond, R.B., 165. Drury, G. Thorn. 312. Dryden, John, 303, 305, 306. Du Bartas, 292. Duflon, G.D., 297. Dumas, Alexander, 392. Dunster, C., 297. Duplessis, Mornay, 280. Durer, Albrecht, 192. Dursley, Lord, 332. Du Thou, 194. Ebers, George, 392. Edmundson, G., 295. Edward III, King, 73, 370. Elckerlick, Everyman, 160. Elizabeth, Queen, 65, 66, 280. Episcopius, Simon, 269. Erasmus, Desiderius, 164, 183, 385. Ersch und Grube, 185. Evelyn, 305. Farlie Robert, 197. Faerni, Gabriel, 195. Field, Nathanael, 284. Fielding, Henry, 350. Fleay, 284. Fletcher, John, 74, 77, 284. Fletcher, Phineas, 292. Foltaire, 261. Fox, George, 266. Francis I, King, 215. Frederik, Henry, Prince, 299. Frederiks, P.G., 380. Froben, 165. Fruin, Robert, 284, 378. Froude, J.A., 16, 66. Fuller, Harold de Wolf, 275. Gansford, Wessel, 206. Garnett, Richard, 300. Gascoigne, George, 79, 198. Geoffrey of Monmouth, 145. Gilpin, George, 252. Gipsies, 78. Gnapheus, Guilielmus, 208. Godefroy, J. Goldsmith, Oliver, 350, 353.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 395

Goose, E., 298. Gothis, 31. Granville, Fulke, 278. Graswinckel, 288. Gray, William, 279. Green, Henry, 194. Greenwood, 265. Grierson, Herbert J.C., 152. Griffith William Elliot, 13, 266. Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, 30. Groen van Prinsterer, 65, 378, 380. Grosart, Alexander, 231, 237. Grote, Gerard, 158. Grotius, Hugo, 234, 289. Guiciardini, 65. Gurteen, S.H., 297. Gustavus Adolphus, 292. Hake, Edward, 156. Hakluyt Society, 254. Halbertsma, J.H., 50. Hallam, 66. Halliwel, James O. Hanbury, Benjamin, 264. Hansa, 369. Harrison, 78. Heiand, 33, 46, 143. Henry the Eighth, King, 166, 184. Herford, Charles H., 178, 222. Heyne, 84. Hickes, George, 41. Hoffman von Fallersleben, 50. Holberg, de, 354. Homer, 375. Hooft, P.C. Hopkins, Samnel, 266. Houlderus, Robert, 283. Howleglass, 178. Huebald, 47. Huydecoper, 30, 42. Independents, 261. Irving, Washington, 386. Israëls, Joseph, 389. Jacquerie, 371. Jasper, John, 268. Jefferson, 19. John, of Austria, 220. Johnson, Reginald Brinsley, 332.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature Johnson, Ben, 79, 223, 234. Johnson, Samuel, 41, 348. Jonckbloet, 30. Junius, Franciscus, 36-41, 69, 288. Junius, Hadrianus, 182, 191. Judith Tinspenning, 42. Juste, Th., 250. Jutes, 24. Kalff, 18, 231, 234. Kanzler, 50. Kanura, 18. Kempis, Thomas à, 155, 171. Knox, 172. Koch, 76. Koeppler, 237. Koolman, 83. Koster, L.J., 185. Kudrun, 46. Kuiper, E.T., 298. Kuyper, Henriette, 389. Laet, Gaspar, 153. Langhenes, Bernhard, 254. Langland, William, 146. Languet, Hubert, 279. Larned, Walter Cranston, 390. Lasco, Johannes à, 210. Lauder, W., 293. Le Brun, 337. Le Clerk, John, 343. Lee, William, 331. Leicester, Robert, Earl of, 195, 280. Leighton, John, 197. Lichtenstein, W., 12. Limborgh, Philips, 269, 343. Lincoln, Abraham, 369. Linneaus, 17. Lipsius, 17. 182. Locke, John, 321, 341. Locke, Thomas, 285. Logeman, H, 162. Lohengrin, 46. Longfellow, 387. Longwater, Nicholas, 154.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 396

Louis XIV, 20, 305. Louis XIII, 285. Lübben, A., 85. Ludger, 29, 143. Luther, M., 153, 172. Lye, Edward, 41. Maarten, Maartens, 390. Macaulay, 381. Maccovius, 17. Mac Ilbraith, J.R., 298. Mackenal, Alexander, 266. Macropedius, Georgius, 208. Mandeville, 254. Manly, J.W., 162. Mansion, Colard, 150. Maresius, 17. Margaret, sister of Edward IV. Maris, brothers, 376. Marlowe, Christopher, 63. Marnix of St. Aldegonde, 249. Marot, Clement, 232. Marvell, Andrew, 309. Mary, daughter of Charles I, 300. Mary, Daughter of James II, 321. Mary, Bloody, 65. Mary van Nimwegen, 177. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, 295. Masnam, Sir Francis, 344. Mason, Caroline Atwater, 389. Massmann, H.F., 32. Massinger, Philip, 284, 287. Mauritz, Prince, 285. Mauve, 376. Mayrtes, William, 155. Mesdag, H.W., 376. Meyer, C.J., 50. Methodists, 261. Middleton, Earl of, 340. Milburne, Luke, 156. Milton, John, 288. Mondragon, 204. Moonen, Arnold, 42. Monen, F.J., 50. Moody, W.V., 298. Moolhuizen, J.J., 290, 298. Moons, Magdalena, 205. More, Thomas, 166.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature Morus, Alexander, 288. Motley, John Lothrop, 377. Mountjoy, Lord, 164. Mueller, A., 298. Mulcaster, 241. Multatuli, 390. Neal, Daniel, 264. Nichols, Francis Morgan, 165, 168. Nicholsen, James, 189. Nicholson, S., 212. Nimmo, William P., 325. Norfolk, Duke of, 184. Normans, 24, 63. Norris, W., 75. O'Callaghan, 16. Oldenbarnevelt, 282. Oxford, Earl of, 216. Page, William, 156. Paine, Thomas, 19. Painter, Richard, 264. Painter, William, 275. Paludanus, 259. Paradin, Claude, 195. Parma, Duke of, 79. Paul, Herman, 29. Paulding, James Kirke, 387. Payne, John, 157. Penn, William, 14, 263. Penry, 265. Peppin, of Herstal, 47. Pepys, 268. Perelaer, 391. Petrarche, 224. Phidias, 375. Philippa, Queen, 147. Philip II, King, 74. Philip, William, 254. Pigot, Richard, 197. Pilgrims, 66. Pingsman, L. Th. W., 32. Pirenne, H., 371. Plantyn, 191. Plato, 375. Plautus, 208. Plutarch, English, 293, 309, 337, 338.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 397

Poelenburg, Arnold, 269. Presbyterians, 261. Price, F.C., 149. Prior, Matthew, 321, 331. Putnam, Ruth, 13, 20. Quakers, 261. Quinet, Edgar, 250. Radbond, King, 32, 46. Radewyn, Florentius, 158. Raphelengius, Francis, 195. Reade, Charles, 388. Reinard the Fox, 48. Rembrandt, 389. Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 197, 348. Rhys, Ernest, 161. Richelieu, 288. Richthoven, 84. Rickman, 368. Rivet, Andreas, 17. Robespierre, 234. Robinson, John, 266. Rogers, Thomas, 156. Rogers, J. Thorold, 17, 95. Romans, 63. Rousseau, J.J., 234. Rubens, P.P., 17, 238. Ruysbroeck, Johannes, 158. Ruytinck, Simon, 189. Salmasius, 288. Sambucus, John, 195. Saxon, 24, 63, 82. Scheltema, P., 185. Schevez, William, 153. Schiller, K., 85. Schimmel, 391. Schmeller, 32. Schouten, William Cornellis, 253. Scot, Mary, 340. Scott, Walter, 385. Selden, John, 288. Seneca, 186. Separatists, 261. Sewel, William, 42, 267. Shaftesbury, 307, 342. Shakespeare, 63, 80, 275. Sidney, Philip, 278. Siegenbeek M., 50.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature Siegfried, 46. Simons, Menno, 266, 267. Sievers, 143. Skeat, Walter, 20, 73, 76. Smollett, Tobias George, 356. Sophia, Queen, 379. Southey, Robert, 360. Spenser, Edmund, 63, 224. Spinoza, 17. Stanhope, Dean, 157. Stanley, Sir William, 75. Staring, A.C.W., 50. Steen, Jan, 389. Stephen, Leslie, 350. Stevens, Henry, 189. Stevenson, Robert Louis, 388. Stockdale, Percival, 312. Struys, Jacob, 276. Stuart, 261. Sunderland, Earl of, 342. Surrey, Earl of, 213. Swinburne, 284. Symonds, J.A., 279. Tadema, Alma, 64. Taine, 64. Taylor, Henry, 368, 372. Temple, William, 304. Ten Brink, Jan, 18. Ten Kate, J.J.L., 391. Ten Kate, Lambert, 30, 42. Terentius, 208. Theosinda, 31. Te Winkel, 18, 42. Thym, Alberdink, 250. Tiele, P.A., 254. Tjalma, G., 250. Todd, Henry John, 236. Tollens, Hendrik, 253, 391. Trevelyan, 383. Tross, L., 50. Turenne, 384. Tyler, Watt, 371. Tyndale, 74, 189. Ulphilas, 31. Ussher, 144. Valdez, 205. Van Artevelde, Jacob, 370. Van Artevelde, Philip, 371.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature 398

Van Cattenburg, Adriaan, 269. Van den Berg, S.Ph., 50. Van der Aa, 42, 185. Van der Have, J., 250. Van der Noot, jonkheer Jan, 69, 191, 224. Van Doesburgh, Jan, 173. Van Dyk, Anton, 313. Van Dyke, Henry, 17. Van Eeden, Fred, 391. Van Hutten, U., 166. Van Koetsveld, 390. Van Lennep, Jacob, 390. Van Linschoten, Jan Huyghen, 253. Van Leyden, Lucas, 192. Van Maerlant, Jacob, 49, 146. Van Meteren, E., 56, 223. Van Meteren, Jacob, 187. Van Noppen, L.C., 18. Van Toorenenbergen, J.J., 250. Van Veldeke, Henric, 47. Van Wassenaer, Abdam, 315. Van Wely, John, 287. Van Woude, Johanna, 391. Van Wijn, H., 50. Vere, Francis, 75. Vermeulen, Aug., 230. Verwey, Albert, 231. Vitriarius, 351. Voet, Johannes, 17. Voet, Paul, 17. Voetius, Gysbertus, 17. Volcanius, Bonaventura, 34, 196. Vondel, Joost van den, 234, 285, 288. Von Moltke, 34. Vosmaer, 390. Vossius, Gerardus, 34. Vossius, Isaac, 30, 34. Wagenaar, Jan, 202. Waghenaer Lucas Jansz, 253. Waller, Edmund, 312. Wallis, 391. Walsingham, Francis, 221. Ward, Seth, 341. Washington, George, 369. Watson, 361. Wesley, 263. Westwood, J.C., 298.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature Wettstein, J.J., 269. Whitney, Goffrey, 193. Whitney, William Dwight, 71. Wickliff, 146, 369. Wilkes, John, 351. William, the Conquerer, 24, 68, 69. William the Silent, 14, 185, 198. William II, Prince, 300. William III, Stadhoder of William III, Stadholder of Holland, King of England, 14, 305. William III, King of Holland, 379. Williams, Roger, 75, 279. Willoughby, Lord, 75. Wolsey, Cardinal, 167. Wood, Francis A., 162. Woodhull, M., 298. Wordsworth, 368. Wurfing, 32. Wyatt, 213. York, Rowland, 75. York, Duke of, 307. Young, A., 16.

Tiemen de Vries, Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature